Through the Divide
by Anzu Maki
Summary: Sakura had been taken to Konoha when she was little. Before that she had lived in Soul Society with her brother. Now her brother, Toushiro, Ichigo, Rukia, and Rangiku are coming to Konoha on a mission.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey everybody! This is my new story for all of you! It's a BleachxNaruto crossover and I did change the past of a couple of characters but I tried to make it as minimal as possible. This is my first shot at a crossover and for all of you who read __**His Return**__, I have not abandoned it and I don't intend too! _

_But when I had gotten my new computer and I went to upload another chapter from my USB stick it completely erased it. So I will try to recover it but if I can't then I'll do my best to remember what I had written and update it._

_**A note from Kyuunarusaku:**__ Don't worry everybody! I'll pester her everyday till she updates His Return, just for you! I know the perfect way to do it too. Hehehe…_

Also, I know that the shinigami are fairly old but I am going to describe about how old they look like they are. As I introduce more characters I'll add them to the list!

Renji: 18

Rukia: 15

Rangiku: 23

Toshiro: 16

Shuhei: 19

Izuru: 18

X

Sakura sighed as she looked out of the window in her living room. Missions didn't seem to be coming in very often for her and her team lately and training was the same old, same old. She had been improving, as well as her two male teammates were. But there was one thing Naruto and Sai wouldn't be able to surpass her in and that was the art of using katanas and other swords.

For the past two and half years she had been training with Tsunade, the legendary slug princess. When she had asked to become the hokage's apprentice she expected to be turned away or told to study under a different medic nin, but was surprised to say the least that she had been accepted and immediately started training with her new mentor.

She turned her attention away from the rain falling against the window and looked down to her lap where a book rested waiting to be read. She let out a sound of boredom as she stood up from the window seat she had previously occupied and walked over to the other side of the room and placed the book back in its place on the bookshelf.

She raised her arms up and stretched her body. She walked down the hall and into her bedroom and jumped onto the kiwi green and white bed. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling above her. For the past month she had been having dreams, and they were about her and her older brother.

She had been so focused on becoming a ninja, her training, and her team's happenings that she hadn't really thought much about him for the past few years. Sure, she had thought about him a little bit every now and then, but not a lot. For the past few months she had been having dreams that were in one way or another connected to her past. All of her dreams were about her brother training her on how to properly use her sword and other things before he had sent her to Konoha.

She had always wondered why her brother had sent her here. She could vaguely remember where she had once lived before coming here and some of her brother's friends.

Sakura sighed and rolled back onto her stomach with her chin resting on top of her hands. She looked at her clock and saw that it was only shortly after twelve.

'_Man, am I tired.'_

'_**Yeah, me too.'**_

'_Well, I'm going to take a nap. What about you inner?'_

'_Inner? Hey, you okay?'_

'………_**.snore……..'**_

Sakura sweat dropped. _'Figures.'_

She pulled back the covers and climbed under them snuggling into the warmth they were providing her. She listened to the pitter-patter of the rain droplets hitting her window before drifting off into the realm of dreams. A flash of lightning flooded the room with a short burst of light followed by the low rumble of thunder.

X

**In Sakura's dream**

She was sitting on the rooftop of a building in the village enjoying the cool spring day as the wind made her soft rosette locks dance. She was wearing the outfit she had been in her previous dreams, a white kosode, a black kimono and hakama with a white obi sash and an odd looking sword that she had previously remembered was called a zanpakuto. Her moment of pleasure was soon interrupted as the cry of a familiar creature was heard followed by the scream of a young child.

She immediately sprinted across the rooftops and dashed to the area that she had heard the screams coming from. When she had gotten there she saw the monster had cornered the child with a chain attached to its chest by a tree. She went to grab a kunai but didn't find her holster. She then remembered that she had the zanpakuto on her back.

She pulled it out of the sheathing and gripped it in her hands. She charged at the monster and gave out a cry as she swung the sword and made a deep cut on the creature's back. It howled out in pain and Sakura took the opportunity that was presented to run and grab the child while the monster was preoccupied. She set the child down at what she believed was a safe distance away from the creature.

She turned back around and got into a defensive stance as the monster started to approach her. She raised the sword above her head and ran towards it aiming to hit it in the torso. It swung its arm and knocked her out of the way.

The monster started to charge at her again but was destroyed by the figure she had seen so many other times before her dreams would end. But this time she could clearly see the figure and what they looked like. The person was a boy who looked to be a little bit older than her with red hair and odd looking tattoos. Her brother.

X

**Soul Society**

Rangiku laughed at the two shinigami who were currently fighting. One being a fuku taichou and the other being a regular human who had gained shinigami powers. At the moment they were fighting about the fuku taichou's odd looking eyebrows.

"I am telling you Renji your eyebrows are weird!"

"No they aren't and what's up with having orange hair Ichigo?!"

"This is my natural hair color!"

"So! I've never even heard of anyone having orange hair!"

Rukia walked up to the trio and let out a sigh of annoyance at the two bickering like it was the end of the world. After a few more seconds of listening to the duo Rukia bashed both of them on the head. The four were waiting for Toshiro Hitsugaya near the tenth squad division headquarters on more information about a new assignment.

Said person rounded the corner and raised an eyebrow. His fuku taichou was asleep mumbling something about sake, Rukia was walking towards her and sat down on a chair, he turned his head to the right a little bit and saw Ichigo and Renji laying on the ground knocked out.

Toshiro cleared his throat and Rukia turned her attention to him as Rangiku woke up and did so as well. "Will one of you wake up Renji and Ichigo?"

A flash of evil could be seen passing through Rukia's eyes as she glanced at the two. She nodded her head and walked over to them, she unleashed a fury of kicks on the unsuspecting victims and sat back down when she thought that they were finally awake enough to her.

The boys picked themselves off the ground and walked over to sit on a large couch across from the one that Rangiku was seated on, mumbling something about revenge against a certain female in the room. Toshiro once again cleared his throat.

"Our new assignment is to go to the living world for a while because there have been reports that multiple hollows are attacking a village and we are to take care of the problem. They are troubling the shinobi village of Konoha who is preparing for an attack from an enemy village that has been troubling them for the past few years. Their leader already knows that we are coming and is going to provide us with somewhere to stay. According to Yamamoto-taichou we are going to be staying with a few shinobi."

At hearing this thoughts of revenge completely flew out of Renji's head. For the first time in about five years he was going to have the chance to see his younger sibling. Flashbacks of training his sister and other moments the two had spent together ran through his mind.

As Renji was reminiscing about his past, Ichigo had finally come up with a plan of revenge that he and Renji could carry out on the dark haired female shinigami sitting across from them with a smirk placed comfortably on her petite face.

He had been calling out Renji's name for the past few minutes and Renji seemed to have zoned out. Ichigo started to wave his hand in front of the shinigami and began to wave them frantically before Renji snapped out of his daze.

The red haired shinigami slapped Ichigo's hand away and turned to him. "What do you want now?"

Ichigo let out a sound of annoyance, "Well, for one, if you were in on a plan of revenge and second what you were thinking about."

Renji sighed and placed his hands on the back of his head, "Well, if you must know I was thinking about my sister."

When Ichigo and the other occupants in the room heard this they turned their heads questioningly at him. Ichigo was the first to question him.

"Since when have you had a sister?"

Renji let out a long sigh and rubbed his temples, "Well for one thing I've had a sister for quite a while and she is only a few years younger than me."

Rukia was a little bit surprised, he had told her that he had a sister but that was all. But, why now of all times, was he finally speaking more about his sibling?

'_I better take advantage of this now.'_

She shifted a little bit before speaking up, "Renji you've never really talked about her, why now?"

Renji looked over to his childhood friend, "Well, I sent her to Konoha a while ago thinking that it would be safer for her there instead of where we were. Hell, the last time I saw her was about five or so years ago before we had gotten into the thirteen divisions. I figured that she could use a little more time practicing with her zanpakuto before I brought her back here."

There was a moment of silence before Rangiku asked a question that she had been itching to ask. "So, there's a chance that we'll get to meet her. What does she look like and what's she like?"

Renji gave a her a quick smirk, smile cross, "She's about three years younger than me, has light pink hair, and bright emerald green eyes. She can have a temper but most of the time is sweet and caring. I sent her to Konoha so that she could train to become a ninja for a short time before coming back here thinking it would help her with wielding a zanpakuto and other aspects of being a shinigami."

The room became silent for a split second before a drunk Izuru and Shuhei came stumbling into the room. Well, more like crawling into the room. Shuhei looked up to Rangiku.

"Hey! You up for getting a drink Matsumoto?"

Rangiku smiled, "Yeah, let's go!" She stood up and pointed a finger toward the doorway they had previously entered through, "Forward march!"

The other occupants in the room sweat dropped as a sober Rangiku lead a drunk Izuru and Shuhei to the nearest bar. Toshiro coughed and his fuku taichou turned around and looked at him questioningly.

"Matsumoto be ready to leave at sunset tomorrow evening."

The strawberry haired shinigami grinned and nodded before continuing to lead her troops to their promise land. After the three had left the tenth division captain turned his attention to the remaining shinigami, "Be ready to leave shortly after sunset. I told Matsumoto sunset so that we would have time for the sake's side affects to wear off."

The two shinigami nodded and left to return to their rooms to pack for the upcoming assignment while Ichigo left to go back to his home to let his family know he was going on a trip and to pack.

X

**Konoha**

It was shortly after two in the afternoon when Sakura woke up. She pushed the covers slightly off her and sat up rubbing the sleep away from her eyes. She pulled the covers fully off of her and sighed in annoyance at the sight of how wrinkled her clothes had gotten in just the matter of a couple hours.

She walked around her bed and headed in the direction of her walk-in closet to chose a different outfit to put on before heading to the hokage tower. Recently, she and Ino had gone out and had bought new training and mission outfits.

She pulled out a long sleeve mesh shirt and a pastel canary yellow spaghetti tank top with black lace trimming the top edge of the top, under the bust, and the bottom edge of the shirt before turning to the other side of her closet.

She searched through the bottoms she had just bought and finally decided on a pair of black shorts that ended a few inches above the knee and a cream skirt that had slits going up on both sides for easier movement that ended before the shorts.

She walked out of her closet and into her adjoining bathroom that was next to it. She started the shower and quickly got in and washed her hair and such before turning the water off and changing into the outfit she had pulled out of her closet.

She had kept her hair short until about a year ago when she decided to let it grow out again. Now her hair reached just below her shoulder blades and was a softer shade of pastel pink than the bright pink it had once been. She brushed it out and tied her new black forehead protector on hear head as a headband.

She smiled at her reflection and walked out of the bathroom and her room and down the stairs. She walked into the living room and pulled on her black combat boots before grabbing an umbrella and walking outside and locking the door to her house.

She walked down the streets, occasionally nodding to the people who greeted her. Soon she was met by the sight of the hokage tower and made her way into the building. She walked up the stairway and down a hallway before coming upon her own office. She opened the door and sat the umbrella by the doorway and making her way to her mentor's office.

When she knocked on the grand oak doors of the office a "Come in." was heard from within. As she opened the doors her sight was filled with what seemed like an endless supply of documents that needed signing, filing, or needed to be sent to their recipients.

Tsunade looked up from her desk and the paperwork she was reading over and let a small smile grace her face. "Ah, Sakura it's good to see you. I was just about ready to send someone to get you."

Tsunade, along with a select few, knew that Sakura wasn't born in the shinobi village of Konoha, but somewhere in Soul Society and that she had an older brother.

Sakura smiled, "Really? How about we use a few clones to get rid of some these documents and you'll have less to do later."

Tsunade smiled gratefully at her student. "Yes, and while they take care of this never ending supply of paper doom, I'll tell you why I needed to talk to you."

Sakura nodded her head and did the correct hand signs for two kage bunshins as did Tsunade. After receiving their commands the clones immediately began their work. Sakura moved over to Tsunade's desk and sat down while the elder shinobi rummaged through her desk looking for a certain scroll.

'_Where is the damn thing?'_

She continued to open and close different desk drawers, looking for the scroll she had received the previous night.

Sakura sweat dropped as her teacher frantically searched for something.

'_What in the world is shishou looking for?'_

'_**I have no clue but at this rate her office is going to look like a tornado hit it, followed by a tsunami.'**_

'_Got that right.'_

Tsunade's eyes gleamed when she found the troublesome document.

_Finally! I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to call in Shizune to find it.'_

Sakura snapped out of her conversation with Inner Sakura when a scroll was slammed down on the desk in front of her. It was a small beige scroll like every other scroll Tsunade had shown her, except this one had black, blue, and purple edging and was decorated with silver butterflies.

'_**Okay, uh, what's up with this scroll?'**_

'_No clue, but we're going to find out in a minute.'_

Tsunade lifted her eyes from the scroll to be met with the puzzled face of her apprentice.

"Uh, Shishou, what's up with the different edging of the scroll? I don't recognize it from any of the other villages."

Tsunade shifted in her seat, "That's because it's not from any of the other villages. It's because it's from Soul Society, I'm sure you're somewhat familiar with it."

The rosette's eyes widened as more memories flooded into her head of her past and began to remember more of it. "Yeah, but what does it have to do with me?"

Tsunade smiled, "Well, a few months ago a hollow had appeared at the border of fire country and was defeated. But, since then, other hollows have been appearing and moving closer to Konoha. So I asked for assistance from an old friend of my grandfather's, Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryusai taichou. He sent me a notice yesterday that he would be sending a group in about three days to help with the growing problem."

Sakura nodded her head in understanding. "So that means that they will be arriving in about two days."

"Correct. He also sent me profiles on the shinigami that will be coming to Konoha. The reason I was going to summon you to my office is because your brother is among the group of shinigami that will be coming to Konoha."

She handed the profiles to Sakura, who gladly read over the shinigami profiles that would soon be arriving in the village.

Both Sakura's and Inner Sakura's eyes became as wide as saucers at hearing her mentor's news.

The blond smiled at the reaction on the shinobi's face in front of her. She was also shocked when she had read through the scroll and had reread it just to make sure that she had truly read it right and that her hangover wasn't messing even more with her head.

When she noticed her apprentice had fully absorbed the news of her brother coming, she decided once more to speak.

"I also need to find a few shinobi that can help house the shinigami that are coming, I figured that you wanted to have your brother to stay with you."

Sakura nodded her head so quickly that Tsunade thought that her beloved pupil's head was going to fly off.

"Yeah! I would like to have him stay with me. But, Shishou, who else are you going to house the shinigami with?"

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temples. "Well, I figured that the Kurosaki kid could stay with Naruto, Shizune has already volunteered to house Matsumoto, but I don't know who to put Kuchiki and Hitsugaya with."

Sakura thought for a few minutes thinking of who they could live with along with Inner Sakura putting her input in and with some persuading from her inner personnel, she decided that she could house the two remaining shinigami.

"Shishou," at this Tsunade looked up to Sakura, "I would be willing to house Kuchiki-san and Hitsugaya-san. I have plenty of room in my house."

Tsunade let a sigh of release escape her lips and nodded. "Very well, I'll send a messenger to your team's training grounds when our guests arrive."

Sakura nodded and bid farewell to the hokage before leaving to prepare for her quests.

X

Hey! There will be multiple parings but I'm not completely sure which pairings but I already have the main one and I would like suggestions as to which pairings you would like to see!

I will tell you however, that the main pairing will be revealed in either the second or third chapter! This was betaed by my friend, Kyuunarusaku!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys here's chapter two for all of you! I would like to say thanks for supporting this story and me! This chapter will be posted a few days late because Kyuunarusaku was out of town. Also I went back and fixed the underline problem. I don't know why but its been doing that everytime I submit a new chapter.

Kyuunaruskau: Im back! Hooray! I went to Washington DC. -Hands out free DC t-shirts to readers- Here's the latest chapter of the awesome crossover fic to ever exist!!

X

Konoha

It had been two days since Sakura had received the news of her brother and a few other shinigami coming to the village. Shortly after she had left the hokage tower she had left to get the necessary items she would need in her house before the group arrived.

She had made sure that she had plenty of food knowing more than likely that Naruto, his guest, and a few others would more than likely come to her house to eat and hang out.

She had double checked that the guest bedrooms were clean and had new sheets on them as well as fresh towels in the bathrooms across the hall. Another of the tasks that she had made sure of was that Naruto had cleaned his apartment and had more than ramen and spoiled milk in his refrigerator.

She stopped and recalled how long it had taken her and the combined forces of Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi to clean the disaster zone and how sore and tired they were after. To say the least, it took well into the night to accomplish the feat.

According to her mentor, the shinigami group that included her brother were arriving sometime today. And because of that she was in an extremely good mood and it would take a great deal of things to turn it around, but nothing is impossible when her team is in the picture either.

She had changed into her new training outfit and placed her weapons pouches on before heading down to the kitchen. There she had a quick breakfast and put on her shinobi boots and headed out the door. The door closed with a small 'click' and was locked. Turning to the direction of their training grounds she gave a small smile and was on her way.

It was a fairly sunny day with a few clouds in the sky here and there. Sakura didn't doubt the fact that Naruto was probably just now finishing his breakfast of ramen and on his way as well. It was likely that Sai was already there and sketching something. Her perverted former sensei was most likely reading his smutty book and taking his time wandering around Konoha.

Within a few minutes the training grounds came into view along with her onyx haired teammate. He was sitting on a low branch of one of the trees that was next to the red bridge. He would stare intently off into the distance in the direction of Konoha's markets and then back to his sketch book and would add more to his artwork.

A small smile made its way onto Sakura's face as she walked over to the tree and leaned against it. A light breeze blew her cherry locks back behind her face and a faint "Sakura-chan!" could be heard as well.

With her keen shinobi senses Sakura dodged Naruto's lung crushing hug as he shortly came into contact with the tree she was just previously by. Sai had also seen the blonde coming in their direction and had jumped from his perch just milliseconds before contact between Naruto and the tree had occurred.

Sakura sighed and gracefully made her way over to her loud mouthed teammate who was currently rubbing his nose trying to regain the feeling that had left that portion of his face. He soon regretted it though as the numbness wore off and a stinging pain replaced it. Sakura let a sigh escape her lips and summoned a small amount of chakra to her hand before bringing her hand up to his nose and healing it.

Naruto smiled at his female teammate before hugging her, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Sakura-chan!"

Sakura sighed, "You're welcome Naruto." A few seconds had passed and he was still rambling on and on about what ever he could think of to tell his teammate about.

'I thought that after a few minutes he would get the hint and let go.'

'**Well, don't give him to much credit he is considered to be an idiot.'**

'I know but right now he's starting to kill my good mood and he's about ready to get the beating of his life.'

Inner Sakura chuckled evilly, '**Yes yes, he is about to face our wrath and Kakashi isn't here to stop us either. Isn't that so very convenient.'**

As Naruto kept rambling on he failed to notice the extreme change in his female teammate's aura. He faintly began to notice it though when she turned her head to face him.

"Naruto."

Naruto gulped as he finally took in the killing intent of the aura that was surrounding the immediate area. He slowly moved out of the embrace and cautiously took a few steps back. Sakura's head was facing the ground and her bangs covered her heart shaped face blocking the view of her facial expression.

She slowly lifted her head allowing her bangs to gently sweep against her face and move back into place on either side of her face. If you looked into her eyes you most likely would see that the normally bright emerald green eyes of the kunoichi were now a darker emerald and had what looked to be like flames dancing across her irises.

Naruto smiled sheepishly and took a side step before pumping chakra into his legs and running as fast as he could to get away from his sister-like friend.

Panic filled him and the Kyuubi just sat there contently making comments on the situation and laughing completely enjoying the show placed in front of him.

Sai just sat there and watched as his teammates were running throughout the entire training grounds and they still were most likely going to have to wait on their ever late leader.

This continued for the next ten or so minutes before Naruto was caught and was given his punishment from his rosette teammate. When everything was all said and done he came out with a black and blue eye, a newly damaged nose, and quite a few bruises.

Sakura left the blonde in a heap on the ground and walked over to the middle of the bridge and sat down on the railing. Sai just turned his attention back to his sketch book and continued on his newest piece.

About an hour later Naruto had been mostly healed thanks to the Kyuubi's chakra but was it was still easy to see he had gotten beaten by his female teammate. He summoned enough energy and dragged himself over to the bridge and dropped unceremoniously in the middle of it.

Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head while Sai just glanced up from his book. The breeze grew a little and a 'poof' of smoke could now be seen. There stood Kakashi the copy cat ninja reading one of the books from his favorite series.

Without withdrawing his attention from the orange book he raised his hand up and gave his greeting of "Yo."

Sai put away his sketch book and just stood there blankly staring at the silver haired jonin. Sakura's temper began to flare a little here and there. Naruto on the other hand let out a muffled version of "You're late!"

'Ugh! Okay that's it! My good mood has officially left the building!'

'**Stupid pervert. Ugh, I guess we will just have to let out all of our frustration and anger on our teammates during training.'**

'Yeah, then we should be in a decent mood when Renji gets here.'

Kakashi after a while of not hearing anything coming out of three nins' mouths for the past few moments looked up from his book and was met with three different sights before him.

The first he came across was Sai. The artist nin was just standing there stiffly and staring at him with blank onyx eyes.

'Okay, that's just the usual response from him.'

Next his eyes landed on the only female teammate of the group. She was currently glaring between Naruto and himself.

'Hm, well it looks like Naruto ruined what ever mood she was in already and she isn't too happy about how late I am today.'

He then followed Sakura's gaze and was met with the sight of Naruto sprawled across the bridge. Just by taking a quick glance at the Kyuubi boy he could tell that he had received quite the beating.

'Typical Naruto. I wonder what he did now to anger our very own mini Tsunade.'

Kakashi chuckled nervously and put his hand behind his head. "Sorry I'm late everyone, I had to help an old lady across the street and put her groceries away."

Sakura's left eyebrow started to twitch at the obvious lie that had been used countless times. "Kakashi, you better have a better explanation than that pathetic excuse."

He sighed and decided to get on with team training for the day.

"Okay guys, we will go ahead and have a two on two training session today. Uh, Sai you and Naruto will be one team and Sakura and I will be the other."

They nodded in understanding and took opposite sides of the training ground's clearing. Sakura lowered herself into a comfortable fighting stance and inhaled deeply before releasing the breathe and smiling ready to beat the shit out of someone. Preferably and most likely Naruto.

Naruto became uneasy when he saw the look on Sakura's face. Sai had also noticed and gave Naruto a fake smile.

"Well dickless, ugly looks like she's going to kill you. At least try to stay up for the first five seconds of the spar."

Naruto looked back angrily at his teammate and yelled, "I bet I can stay in longer than you can bastard!"

Sai's fake smile grew, "I doubt that dickless."

Naruto's eyes narrowed a bit, "Why I ought to..."

Sakura's temper was beginning to flare even more if possible. "Will the two of you idiots shut up and get ready to face your doom already!"

Kakashi's lone eye widened a bit, Sakura was extremely angry today.

'Well it is a good thing that I put her with me then. I would hate to be receiving her wrath today. I was pretty sure she was in a good mood earlier. Oh well, that just means that I can let her take her temper out on them and I can read my book.'

X

**Soul Society**

Toshiro sighed impatiently as they waited on the last remaining person who was assigned to this mission to arrive. He was somewhat pleased that he had told her earlier than their scheduled time so that in case something like this would happen they wouldn't be late.

Unfortunately though Rangiku was later than what he had told everyone else. He would give her ten more minutes before he began the man hunt.

Minutes later

It was approaching the ten minute time limit that he had placed for his fuku taichou to get to the requested destination. She had exactly fifteen more seconds before the man hunt would begin.

The seconds ticked by quickly, there were only seven more seconds left. As he silently counted down the few remaining seconds he was becoming more angry at Matsumoto. He had told her to be ready a few hours earlier than everyone else and she was still late.

Just as he was about ready to order everyone to split up to find the missing shinigami a huge dust cloud could be seen approaching the immediate area. Upon further inspection you could make out a shinigami with strawberry blonde hair running directly toward them.

Rukia and Toshiro side stepped to dodge the on coming shinigami bullet that was gaining speed by the second. Ichigo and Renji on the other hand weren't paying attention and didn't notice the tenth division's fuku taichou heading directly for them until it was too late.

A cloud of dust rose up into the air and blocked the view of the three victims. The sound of someone coughing could be heard and soon the dust settled back down.

A mass of tangled limbs were all that could currently be seen. Rukia giggled at the sight while Toshiro just became more annoyed and sighed. Eventually Ichigo's head was seen and he began to cough mini puffs of dirt out of his mouth.

Renji then popped his head up and gasped for breath. Rangiku was perfectly fine, her limbs were only tangled up. She wasn't lacking air or had a mouth full of dirt. Slowly they started to untangle themselves with some help from Rukia and Toshiro here and there.

A few minutes later

Ichigo, Renji, and Rangiku were back up on their feet and had dusted all the dirt they could off of them. Toshiro then coughed to get everyone's attention.

"Now that everyone is here and is ready to leave, Matsumoto open the door."

Rangiku nodded and went along with the task she was given. Soon a large round rice screen door appeared in front of the group. The doors slowly opened and Toshiro made his way over to it. The group then followed the captain's actions and stepped forward and through the newly opened passage.

X

**Konoha**

Toshiro stepped into a large office that smelled of sake. Apparently the leader of this village and Rangiku were going to get along just fine. Soon enough the rest of his team came through the portal like doors. As soon as Rangiku stepped out of the doorway the doors began to slide shut once again.

The sound of a door shutting could be heard soon after. A woman who had short black hair carrying a pig had entered the large office. She gave the new comers a smile.

"Ah, you five must be the shinigami that will be staying here for a while. My name is Shizune."

Toshiro glanced at her and nodded, "Yes we are. May I ask where Tsunade is?"

The woman who had identified herself as Shizune had told them to take a seat while she went to go find the hokage.

Rangiku and Rukia had sat down on chairs that were placed in front of a large desk. Ichigo and Renji were leaning against the wall nearest them and were talking about random things while Toshiro had moved over to a large window that over looked part of the village.

A few minutes had passed by when the door that Shizune had previously disappeared through had opened. A busty blonde walked through the doorway with Shizune trailing in behind her.

The woman walked across the room and behind the desk before taking her place in the seat behind it. She pulled out a beige colored folder from one of the many drawers of the desk and sat it down on the glass top. She folded her hands together and rested her elbows on the desk before setting her chin on top of her hands.

"You are the group of shinigami that Yamamoto-taichou sent?"

Toshiro moved from his previous position and walked closer to the desk.

"Yes, I am Hitsugaya-taichou the leader of this mission. And you must be the hokage of this village."

Tsunade looked at the snowy haired taichou. 'Hm, so this is the child genius that Yamamoto had told me about.'

She looked around and studied the other shinigami in the room. 'I have a feeling that things will get quite interesting for a while.'

"Yes, I am the hokage. Welcome to Konoha, the village hidden among the leaves. I will summon your hosts here in a moment. Which one of you would be Rangiku Matsumoto?"

Rangiku smiled and gave a small smile.

Tsunade nodded, "Very well, you will be staying with Shizune."

Rangiku smiled and walked over and began talking animatedly to Shizune.

Tsunade then looked through the folder and found the group's profiles. She quickly scanned through and put faces with names.

She closed the folder back up and called for a chunin to report to her office. A few moments later a boy who was about fourteen or so walked into the office and stood in front of Tsunade.

"You summoned for me hokage-sama?"

The blonde woman nodded, "Yes I need you to go to training ground three and tell the members of team Kakashi that they are being summoned to my office."

The young nin nodded and walked out of his leader's office and began his search for the famed team Kakashi.

After running through the busy streets of his village he finally came across the team he was searching for. He noticed that it looked as if they were about ready to start a spar.

'I got here at the right time. I would hate trying to get their attention if they had already started.' The boy involuntarily shivered.

"Kakashi-san, Tsunade-sama requests you and your team's presence in her office."

Kakashi rose from his fighting stance and nodded at him. "Very well, you may continue with your duties."

The nin nodded and was gone seconds later. Kakashi pulled out his book, "Alright team, it looks like we'll have to train some other time. Let's get to the hokage's tower."

Sai and Naruto eased out of their stances and stood up. Naruto looked at his rosette teammate and cautiously walked over towards her. Sakura unwillingly stood upright and started on her way towards her mentor's office.

Not even half way to the tower, Naruto and Sai had managed to get Sakura to snap and were now running towards Tsunade's office fearing for their lives even though the kunoichi wouldn't kill them. Just pound them severely enough to the point that they'd be off the mission rosters for a good amount of time.

Sai and Naruto rounded the corner of the street with the tower only a few hundred meters away from them. Sakura was hot on their tails while Kakashi was a few hundred meters behind her innocently reading his book.

Naruto slammed the door open to the main lobby of the building and started to make his way up the stairs with Sai right behind him.

Not even seconds later Sakura was also going up the stairs tearing after two of her male teammates. Sai and Naruto reached the top of the stairs and were running down the hallway. Sai had somehow gotten in front of the blonde.

Naruto grinned. 'Almost there!'

Then he heard a growl of anger and paled somewhat. The Kyuubi was chuckling at the helpless blonde and ranting on about how stupid he was and how he was really in for it this time.

**In Tsunade's office **

The occupants turned their attention towards the closed office door when they heard thundering foot steps and a growl coming towards them.

Shizune went and opened the door stepping out of the way when she saw the scene.

**In the hallway **

Sakura had caught up to her teammates and grinned in victory, they weren't going to get away from her this time.

'SHOW THEM WHAT WE'VE GOT! CHAAAAA!'

Sakura grinned even more at her inner's encouragement and brought her fist back. She didn't enhance it with chakra because she still wanted them in one piece.

She threw her fist forward and collided with Naruto's back. Naruto then proceeded to collide with Sai. They were about to hit the door when a surprised Shizune opened it and immediately backed up to avoid being hit.

The boys then flew into the room creating a large gust of wind and the shinigami in the room turned their heads as the watched their path of travel. The two nin collided into the wall opposite of the door and after a few seconds started to slowly slide to the floor.

Tsunade sighed and sweat dropped at the sight as Shizune worriedly ran over to check and make sure they were fine. The occupants in the room turned their heads once again to the doorway when a masculine chuckle was heard.

Two shadows could be seen approaching. The first figure walked into the room and appeared to be smiling but it was hard to tell for the shinigami since a mask covered his face.

"I don't think you had to hit them that hard Sakura."

The second figure who he was talking to came into the room and huffed. "I don't think I hit them that hard Kakashi."

The figure who was identified as Kakashi smiled again.

Toshiro lifted an eyebrow at her. So this was Renji's younger sister. He had to admit Renji's description of her didn't do her much justice.

X

Hey guys I will now tell you that the official pairing for this story is going to be revealed soon! It's one my favorite BleachxNaruto crossover pairings. I would like to thank you all for reading and reviewing this chapter and the last one!

Ja ne!

Anzu Maki


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys!! I'm back after almost three weeks of not updating. Sorry about that, track is almost over so we've been pretty busy just ask Kyuunarusaku! I haven't had Kyuu go over the chapter yet so sorry for any errors in advance.

But good news!! We've won two of three invitational's and are preparing for our next one. So I will try to update again soon, I'm job shadowing on Monday so I'll be able to work on the next chapter then.

Also the pairing is revealed in this chapter!

**X**

Sakura huffed and crossed her arms. She didn't hit Sai and Naruto that hard. Did she?

_'**No! We did not hit the two bakas that hard! Cha!'**_

She sweat dropped. Her inner self was energetic and violent today. That usually wasn't a good thing for those who got on her nerves or made her angry.

She dropped her arms back down to her sides and moved her bangs from her hair. She looked around Tsunade's office scanning the new arrivals. Her eyes stopped when they came onto one person in particular. He was muscular and wore the standard shinigami uniform.

_'**He has an aura that practically screams hottie!'**_

She had to agree with her inner, her brother had grown hotter since she had last seen him.(A/N: Some of you probably thought it was Toshiro or Ichigo!) No doubt he would have fan girls in no time. Not to mention she had a feeling Ino wasn't going to let her live this down after she found out.

Then something white attracted her vision. He seemed to be the leader of the group that had come to Konoha. He was about as tall as Naruto and Sai, maybe a little bit shorter but not by much.

_'**Wow, major hottie alert! He's even hotter than the Uchiha brothers!'**_

Sakura sweat dropped at her drooling inner and mentally rolled her eyes. She hated to admit it but inner was right. His hair was a snowy white color and had beautiful aqua eyes.

She looked around quickly, apparently everyone else's attention had been focused on her pancake flattened teammates. With a grin on her face she ran and glomped her brother.

He slightly jumped in surprise and then came to the conclusion of one of the few people who would dare glomp him. A grin crept onto his face and chuckled as he embraced his sister.

"It's good to see you too Sakura."

Her grin grew, "Well you haven't changed to much nii-san."

At this point in time the shinigami had turned their attention to the two siblings instead of the two male shinobi of team seven. Rangiku had a huge smile on her face.

Her smile didn't go past her taichou's attention. He had a feeling that the two females were going to get along well as well Rukia. Said female shinigami watched her best friend and his younger sibling reunite with a smile etched onto her face.

Toshiro turned his head towards the last remaining team member of the group. Ichigo's eyes were slightly widened but not very much. His expression soon turned into a smirk at the lithe female's abilities.

The tenth division captain had to admit that he didn't expect such a petite female to have that much power in a single punch. He gazed at her once more.

His earlier accusation was correct. Renji's description didn't do the pink haired female much justice. Her hair was a soft pastel pink that had hints of a silvery color in it and her eyes were a soft yet powerful shade of emerald.

The two siblings by now had separated and were teasing each other.

"Well you've grown some, but not much."

"Shut up Renji. I may be small but I bet I can kick your butt in a fight."

"Yeah, right. And I'm the king of Timbuktu." Renji replied.

Sakura looked at him innocently. "Really, since when?"

"You are so gullible."

At this point Naruto and Sai had been pulled up from the floor and healed by Shizune. "Not huh! Sakura-chan is just acting right now!"

Renji raised an eyebrow at the ramen loving shinobi. "Really now."

Naruto nodded his head so fast that Shizune began to worry that he was going to give himself a concussion without the help of Tsunade or Sakura.

Sai decided to put his input in as well. "It's true. Sakura's acting has gotten dickless and myself to do just about anything she wants. Well, that and her inhuman mutant strength."

At this Tsunade and Sakura had two rather large tick marks and began stretching their arms and cracking their knuckles. Sai, who at the moment was oblivious to this kept on talking about the two's strength.

The two kunoichi pulled back their arms and released them knocking the unsuspecting artist into a state of unconsciousness. A few people in the room sweat dropped at this.

Tsunade cleared her throat and those conscious in the room turned to the blond hokage.

"Well, now that we've settled some problems lets get on with the introductions."

Kakashi nodded and stepped forward putting his book back into its' pocket. Sakura mumbled something along the lines of a "pervert" which Toshiro had caught.

"Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi and I am the leader of team seven."

The silver haired nin stepped back and leaned against the wall. An overly excited spiky haired blond nin stepped forward.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the next hokage! Believe it!"

Sakura smiled, "I'm Sakura Abarai but in the shinobi world I am known as and go by Sakura Haruno."

Shizune smiled. "My name is Shizune and the black haired male who is unconscious is Sai."

Tsunade sighed. "You all know who I am."

She then mentioned for the shinigami to introduce themselves.

Renji put his hands behind his head. "Abarai Renji sixth division fuku taichou."

Rukia smiled politely at the shinobi and kunoichi. "I'm Kuchiki Rukia, member of the thirteenth division."

Ichigo had a bored look on his face. "Kurosaki Ichigo, human shinigami."

"I'm Matsumoto Rangiku fuku taichou of the tenth division!"

Toshiro sighed at the antics of his fuku taichou. "Hitsugaya Toshiro, taichou of the tenth division and leader of this mission."

Tsunade nodded, "Now that everyone has been introduced I'll let you know whom is staying with whom."

At that moment Sai opened his eyes and stood up.

"Matsumoto-san"

At this Rangiku protested. "Please call me Rangiku!"

"Alright then. As I was saying, Rangiku will be staying with Shizune. Kurosaki-san will be staying with Naruto."

At this Ichigo's eye twitched, 'Why the hell am I stuck with the hyperactive baka.'

"Abarai-san, Kuchiki-san, and Hitsugaya-san will be staying with Sakura."

The occupants in the room nodded and walked out of the large office after being dismissed except for Rangiku who was staying with Shizune. Shortly after walking out of the hokage tower Kakashi bid farewell.

Naruto had somehow managed to drag his guest and Sai to his favorite ramen stand. Sakura then lead her guests to her house waving to some of the villagers that gave a quick hello.

After walking through the center of town for a few minutes came close to the northern side of the village and approached a decent sized house that was a light beige tan color.

Sakura walked up to the door and unlocked it opening it for her guests to pass through. She followed soon after and walked into the kitchen.

"I bet you guys are hungry what would you guys like to eat?"

At this Renji's stomach growled and he rubbed it muttering something inaudible.

"Tempura chicken sounds good Sakura."

Sakura looked from the kitchen and nodded to her brother. "Okay, It'll be ready in a little bit."

Renji then walked over to where Rukia was looking at pictures on a bookshelf over by the stairs. He followed her line of vision. She was looking at an old picture of the two siblings.

Rukia turned slightly and looked up to her friend. "You both look so much different then what you do now in this picture."

Renji smiled slightly, "Well, it has been a while since we've been together."

Rukia looked back at the picture. "That and it looks like this was taken shortly before we met."

Toshiro had sat down on a cream love seat shortly after arriving and had been listening to the two's conversation.

_'I don't know what it is about Renji's sister but there is something that Renji isn't telling us about her.'_

**X**

**Kitchen**

Sakura had taken out every thing that she was going to need to make the tempura chicken. She washed the rice and put it aside as well as the chicken and began to mix everything she needed for the coating.

As she was preparing the meal she was having quite the conversation with Inner Sakura.

_'**Wow, Toshiro-kun is HOT!'**_

_'That didn't take very long.'_

_'**What do you mean by that?'**_

_'Well for one you are already calling him Toshiro-kun.'_

_'**Well duh! He so deserves the title. He's our little Shiro-chan!'**_

_'Yea- wait what! How is he ours?!'_

_'**Well for one thing he is going to become our man and I will make sure of that!'**_

_'Someone has gotten a little possessive.'_

_'**You can't blame me though he is unbelievably hot! You have got to side with me on this one and you know it too.'**_

_'Unfortunately I do have to side with you. He is too hot for his own good.'_

_'**Yep! And he will be ours! No slutty little fan girl is going to have him on my watch!'**_

Sakura rolled her eyes. _'Okay first of all, I will end up being the one who ends up saving from the slutty fan girls and second, we barely know him right now.'_

Inner Sakura smiled evilly. **'The keyword in that sentence is ****_yet__.'_**

She sweat dropped. _'What in the hell do you have planned now.'_

Inner cackled evilly. _**'I will tell you later tonight. But for now you might want to finish dinner.'**_

'_Thanks Inner.'_

'_**No problem, see ya later!'**_

Sakura place the food on the table along with the rice and some fresh fruit. She walked into the living room seeing the shinigami sitting on the furniture by the bookshelf.

"Hey guys, dinner is ready."

Before she could even finish her brother was at the table breaking his chopsticks and was helping himself to the food presented on the table. She sweated dropped at him while Rukia proceed to yell about him and his manners.

Toshiro shook his head and sat down in between Rukia and Renji who were across from each other at the circular table. This left Sakura the place across from Toshiro.

'_**Score! We get to sit across from Shiro-chan!'**_

'_Be quiet! Besides I thought that you said you weren't going to be back until later.'_

'_**Well, I decided to stop by and Toshiro-kun just so happened to be here.'**_

'_What ever.'_

Sakura turned her attention back to the yelling Rukia and hungry Renji. She sighed and Toshiro looked at her.

"I'm guessing Renji does this often now."

"I guess he's only been on my team for a few missions."

"Oh, well I guess I'll have to give him a lesson on why he needs to remember his manners."

By the end of dinner Rukia had finally stopped yelling at her best friend, Renji had quit shoveling food in his mouth like he hadn't eaten in months, and Toshiro and Sakura had continued to talk about random things.

After the dishes and food were taken care of Sakura lead the three upstairs and down the hall. She stopped in front of a door about half way through the hallway.

She turned around to face the three shinigami. "I'll let you guys decide who gets what room. My room is the last on the left. She watched as Renji and Rukia looked at each other and had agreed to a silent competition.

By the time the two had started all three room's doors were wide open and there were only two rooms left. Toshiro had taken the room across from Sakura's which was painted a silvery blue gray color. The bed had black sheets and snowy white pillows and comforter. The furniture was a midnight black color.

Rukia saw the room she wanted and ran to it and claimed it leaving Renji with the remaining room which he didn't mind too much.

Rukia's room was a pale purple color that had a silver and dark plum purple bed. On the wall where the bed was the kanji for serenity was painted in white above the bed. The furniture was a shade of white and was accented with silvery hues.

The room that Renji had gotten was a light gray color with hints of charcoal gray in it. The bed was crimson red and white. On the wall across from the bed was a mural of fire along with the kanji for inner fire in the center around it surrounded by the flames. The furniture was a dark gray black color.

There were two bathrooms in the hallway which the shinigami would share. It was decided that the only female of the group would get her own bathroom while the males shared the other.

**X**

Soon enough the sun had set and everyone had retired to their own rooms for the night. Sakura had sat down on the window that was in her room and had watched the sun set and the moon begin to climb into the twilight sky.

Shortly after that she had picked up the book she had started to read the day she had off earlier that week. She sighed and put the book down. She wasn't tired and reading a book didn't seemed appealing to her at the moment. She was feeling restless.

Sakura shifted out of her sitting position on the bench and walked to the bathroom adjoined to her room.

'_Maybe a nice warm shower will help some.'_

A little while later she came out. She wasn't feeling as restless as before but was still somewhat restive. Clutching the towel against her lithe form she walked to her closet.

Deciding on a pale silver tank top, a white off the shoulders long-sleeve shirt, and a pair of light aqua shorts she put them on and then brushed her wet locks before pulling them into a low ponytail.

It was still fairly warm out so she had opened her window and looked up to the star filled sky. She climbed out the window and jumped onto the roof. She sat down and wrapped her arms around her legs.

Her mind flashed back to the times that she shared with team seven looking up at the stars. Most of them were of the new team seven. Only one of them were of the old team seven. It's true that she still cared for Sasuke. But only as a teammate.

The sound of someone else on the roof caught her attention. She looked behind her and saw Toshiro.

"What are you doing out here Toshiro?"

Earlier that evening she had told him to drop the san of her name and he replied to her request if should would do the same to his.

"I couldn't sleep so when I heard someone on the roof I decided to see who it was."

Sakura nodded and pat the spot next to where she was sitting.

"Come sit with me then."

He walked over and sat next to her. He had taken off his haori and his black kimono which left him in his white kosode. Sakura looked up to the sky.

"What's it like being a taichou in the Gotei thirteen?"

Toshiro looked at her form that had been highlighted by the moon's rays. He decided then that she was different from most people he had met. She hadn't commented on the fact that he was so young for being a shinigami captain or his unusual hair color. Not that she didn't have one either.

"Well, there is a lot that we do. I assign missions to my squad members, attend meetings that are usually meaningless. But it seems like the paperwork never stops for us either."

At this Sakura let out a giggle. "That sounds a lot like Tsunade's job. Shizune and I usually help out that way it gets done quicker and shishou is usually in a better mood then."

Toshiro nodded in understanding. A cold wind blew and Sakura shivered slightly. Toshiro noticed this and brought his arm around her to block the wind. She looked up to him thankfully and let her head rest on his shoulder.

In the background you could see Rukia cooing at how cute of a couple they made and her plans on how to get them together while holding Renji back who was mumbling about how the ice zanpakuto wielding taichou had just met his younger sister and what he should do.

Toshiro could tell that Rukia and Renji had seen them but ignored them liking the company of the female leaning against him. Within a few minutes the reiastu of the two disappeared. As a colder wind came Sakura buried herself closer to Toshiro. Toshiro let a very faint smile make its way onto his face.

X

Well the cat is out of the bag! I love this paring and I'd like to thank everyone on their input of the pairing they wanted to see. I do plan on using a few of the suggestions for later stories and one-shots.

Thank you all for reading!

Ja ne!

Anzu Maki


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys! Sorry about making you wait for so long! Here's the next chapter!

Also, for those of you who are interested our team did end up winning our last invitational.

**Kyuunarusaku: Yeah! We totally kicked their butts!! Woo-hoo!**

**X**

After a few more minutes of looking up at the starry sky and keeping Sakura warm, Toshiro decided that they should go inside. The cold didn't bother him, but he knew that if they stayed outside too much longer Sakura might get sick or fall asleep.

He looked down at the female who was trying to burrow herself further into the taichou. He pulled her closer to block out the wind before picking her up bridal style.

"Eh?"

Sakura stared at Toshiro questionably wondering why he had just picked her up.

'_**I bet that he's going to take us inside and tell us that he wants to ravage us until dawn!'**_

Sakura sweat dropped at her inner.

'_Why am I stuck with you as my inner self?'_

Inner Sakura looked at her confused.

'_**What do you mean by that?'**_

Sakura mentally sighed. Her inner reminded her of Naruto and his stupidity.

'_What I mean is why are you so perverted and violent?'_

Inner's mouth formed an 'O' shape.

'_**Oh, that? It's because I can be. That and I'm just voicing what you really want to think but refuse too.'**_

Sakura just lifted an eyebrow at the statement before she was hit with another icy cold burst of wind. She turned her head so that her face was now in Toshiro's chest and blocked from the blustery weather.

Toshiro looked down at the kunoichi that he was holding in his arms when Hyorinmaru decided to pop in.

'_**Well this is a first.'**_

'_What are you doing here, Hyorinmaru?'_

'_**I decided to stop by so I could bug you for a while. And then when I come to talk to you I see a kunoichi in your arms. A pink haired one, no less.'**_

'_So what are you getting at Hyorinmaru?'_

'_**What I am getting at is that you managed to get a girl, and a beautiful one at that.'**_

'_Great, now you are going to bug me about this aren't you?'_

'_**Maybe, but I'll be stopping by later kid.'**_

With that, Hyorinmaru made his departure and left Toshiro to his own thoughts.

'_Troublesome dragon.'_

Toshiro let a small sigh escape from his lips and started to make his way back into the house with Sakura still conveniently placed in his arms.

He carefully dropped onto the ledge of Sakura's window and walked into her room. It wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. With one hand, he closed the window and started to walk in the direction of her bed.

He looked down at the pink haired beauty who had made herself comfortable in his arms. Her head was leaning against his chest and had locked her arms around his neck with her eyes closed and her breathing was becoming even.

'_She had probably fallen asleep when I was busy talking to Hyorinmaru.'_

He shifted her in his arms as he pulled the covers on her bed back. He placed her gently onto the warm bed and pulled the covers over her petite body, carefully untangling her arms from his neck.

He turned and started towards his own room when he had heard someone talking. He turned around and Sakura was lying on her side facing him. Her eyes were half idle.

"Good night Toshiro-kun."

Toshiro stood in place stunned at the kunoichi in front of him before letting a small smile grace his face.

"Good night Sakura."

Her eyes had been fully closed but she had still heard Toshiro and was slowly drifting off into the realm of sleep and dreams. He turned back around and closed the door softly behind him. He walked across the hall and entered his own room. He also closed the door softly as not to wake up anyone else who might be asleep. After making his way into the bed he let sleep consume him as he waited for morning.

X

Rangiku shifted in bed so that the first rays of daylight would be hitting the back of her head instead of her face. She and Tsunade had stayed up fairly late drinking sake and let Shizune fret and worry about them. After a while they had finally managed to get her hostess to calm down before going home. Luckily Shizune didn't live too far away from the hokage tower or Tsunade's home so they walked most of the way to the apartment with the drunk hokage.

'_I will have to visit Tsunade again later today. That was some really good sake. I wonder where she got it? I'm sure that Izuru and Shuhei would love to try it too!'_

She sat up and threw her legs over the edge of the bed. Giving her arms and legs a quick stretch she placed her feet back onto the ground and walked into the bathroom that Shizune had shown to her last night.

Taking off her kimono and kosode she stepped into the warm, inviting shower and let the water run down her body. She quickly washed her hair and dried herself before getting dressed into a clean uniform.

She walked into the kitchen and greeted Shizune.

"Did you have a good night's sleep, Shizune-chan?"

Shizune smiled. "Yes, I did. What about you, Rangiku?"

Rangiku smiled as well. "I had a wonderful night's sleep!"

A few minutes later and they were both eating breakfast and chatting animatedly.

X

Ichigo sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past two minutes. This blond idiot wouldn't stop talking about ramen. He had to admit it was good, but this kid was beyond obsessed about it.

He had woken up just a few minutes ago and had walked out of his room when he had asked Naruto what was for breakfast. The blonde shinobi had replied with a "Ramen!'

He hoped that this wasn't going to be the only type of food that he was going to be eating while they were in Konoha. If he found out that it was, he was going to march straight over to Tsunade and demand that he be placed with someone else.

After a few more minutes of hearing the spiky blonde go on about the different types of flavors of ramen that he adored so much, he had finally changed the topic.

But that was short-lived and he began to drift back onto the topic of what some people might consider his obsession or drug. Ichigo then proceeded to bang his head on the table in front of him, muttering.

"Why me? Why did I have to stay with this blonde idiot? Does the universe hate me?!"

X

Sakura shifted in her bed as the memories from the previous night replayed in her head. After having a long conversation with her inner she was finally able to convince herself that she was falling for the white-haired shinigami taichou.

She rolled herself over and looked at her alarm clock. It was just past five and the first rays of dawn were starting to make their way into her bedroom. She rubbed her eyes and threw the warm comforter off of her lithe body and grabbed her clothes. She then walked into the bathroom to get ready for her team's first training session with the shinigami.

After a few minutes she came out dressed with her hair brushed and pulled up into a bun with a couple senbon hidden discretely inside of it. She walked out of her room and down the hall quietly, as to not wake anybody up.

When she entered the kitchen, she saw that she wasn't the only person up. Sitting at the table with a cup of tea was Toshiro. He briefly looked up at her and gave a smile. She smiled and nodded towards him after being acknowledged. She walked to the fridge and began pulling out everything that she was going to need to make breakfast.

She began to crack a few eggs and stir in milk, vanilla, and pancake mix into a bowl. While she waited for the griddle to get hot so she could cook the mixture, she placed some fruit on the table along with butter, syrup, tea, and other things that would be needed for breakfast.

She walked back to the stove top and poured some of the pancake batter onto the hot griddle and listened to the sounds of the pancakes cooking.

'_I wonder what today's training session will be like?'_

'_**I don't know, but I bet it will be a great show!'**_

'_Huh? What do you mean by that inner?'_

'_**Well…Oh! Flip the pancakes before they burn.'**_

Sakura smiled.

'_Thanks inner! So what were you going to say?'_

'_**Oh yeah, that the training session will be better than any of my favorite soap operas because Renji and Naruto are going to be there.'**_

She giggled at the thought of Renji and Naruto training together along with insults flying like the weapons that were sure to be following.

'_Yeah, and we don't know about Ichigo. He might add to the show as well.'_

Inner Sakura smile mischievously.

'_**Yes, and after watching that show for a while everyone else will be distracted and we can talk to Toshiro-kun without Naruto or Renji interrupting!'**_

'_Okay, how long have you been planning this?'_

Inner Sakura struck a thinking pose.

'_**Well, since last night after our little conversation, I think. And the pancakes are done!'**_

Sakura rolled her eyes, took the pancakes off the griddle, and poured more batter onto the hot surface.

'_Whatever. Shouldn't you be somewhere else right now besides bugging me?'_

Inner's face scrunched up before a light bulb appeared above her head in realization.

'_**Oh shit! I'm going to miss my favorite show!'**_

With that inner took off like a scared field mouse to make it in time for the show, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.

'_Finally she's gone. I thought I wouldn't get rid of her.'_

Sakura continued to make breakfast and enjoy the peace and quiet of the morning that she knew would soon be interrupted.

Toshiro stared at Sakura over the edge of his cup as he recalled what she had called him the night before.

'_Toshiro-kun.'_

It was obvious that she was falling for him and he was beginning to realize that he too was falling for her. And hard at that. This was the first time he had felt this strongly about someone besides a few people.

He had decided earlier when he had waken up that he was going to find out what Sakura thought of him.

Within a few seconds you could hear a 'thump, thump!' It sounded like a stampede of elephants was racing down the stairs. Toshiro cocked an eyebrow while Sakura just turned so that she was facing the doorway from over by the sink.

In less than three seconds Renji had raced into the living room with Rukia screaming angrily at him as she held onto his back for dear life. Sakura's eyes widened when Renji had failed to see the change of the two rooms' floors.

When he went to step into the kitchen, he couldn't feel the floor underneath his feet and promptly fell flat onto his face. Rukia had let go just as he had entered the kitchen and landed safely on top of Renji.

She got off of him and started to kick him, yelling.

"WHAT THE HELL, RENJI?! DID YOU NOT NOTICE THAT THE FLOOR CHANGES ELEVATION?! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!"

Rukia huffed, crossed her arms, and proceeded to make her way to the table for breakfast.

"Ouch."

Sakura sweat dropped at her brother.

'Sometimes I wonder how we are related.'

'**Yeah, I know. Just be thankful he isn't more like Naruto.'**

'Good point.'

Sakura finished putting the pancakes onto the table and turned back to the counter top and picked up her tea. Miraculously, Renji was able to get up and sit down at the table. He had sat down where he had been yesterday and Rukia was sitting where she was yesterday.

That left only one place left. The spot between Rukia and Toshiro. Breakfast went by similar as it had the night before. Only, instead of just Rukia yelling at Renji, Sakura would join in at times.

X

Anzu: Hey guys I know this chapter is shorter than the others but with I will write more in the next couple of chapters. Also, at our track sectionals a starting block had fallen on one of my fingers and it still somewhat hurts. It actually looks like a rainbow in my opinion.

**Kyuunarusaku: Maa. Gomen-nasai, Anzu-chan! I didn't mean to make that cart fall over…and hopefully it will get better soon! -rubs back of head sheepishly-**

Anzu: It's okay Kyuu-chan I forgave after it happened!

Ja ne!

Anzu Maki


	5. Chapter 5

Hey guys sorry for the long wait! Kyuu and I were up in Michigan last weekend and didn't have access to the internet or a computer at all.

One good thing that came from the trip was that I have more ideas that I can use for this story.

………And Kyuu, please don't spoil any of the crack that will soon be incorporated into the story. And yes, that does include the crater you found.

**Kyuunarusaku:Michigan was great. But the lake was cold. **

**OMG! You mean THE Crater?? YOSH!! **

**This chapter was officially BETAed by….MUAH!**

**X**

After a long and yelling-filled breakfast, Rukia, Renji, and Toshiro had gone upstairs to finish getting ready for their first training session with team seven.

Sakura had stayed in the kitchen and had made sure that the bentos for lunch were ready for later in the day. She put the four bentos on the counter next to the doorway and walked up the stairs to her room to make sure that all of her weapons were in their appropriate pouches.

She placed her kunai and shuriken holsters on, walked across the room, picked her medic bag up off of the desk, and double checked to make sure she had more than enough supplies.

'_**I have a feeling we are going to need these more than usual.'**_

'_Me too, inner, me too.'_

'_**Well, usually it's only Naruto-baka that needs bandaged up. But with Renji and the other shinigami, who knows…'**_

Sakura sighed.

'_You're right. I have a feeling Naruto is going to make another rival or two before Kakashi even gets there.'_

'_**Unfortunately, and I've come up with another list of things that we can do to make him on time for once.'**_

'_Well, we'll have to go over them later. Otherwise we're going to be late ourselves.'_

She gave one last quick look around her bedroom to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Seeing that she hadn't, she walked out of the room and closed the door softly behind her.

She turned around only to come face to face with Rukia.

"Sakura-san."

"Sakura is just fine, Rukia."

"Okay, Sakura. Where are we going to train?"

Sakura let a mischievous grin grace her face.

"We are going to be training at grounds two. It's a little ways from here. But how would you like to have a little fun with some of our teammates?"

A devious grin formed on the face of the shinigami.

"Ah, I would love to, Sakura. What do you have in mind?"

"Well…"

Sakura stopped and looked at Rukia. Which she immediately understood, some one was coming and it might be one of the teammates they wanted to have fun with.

Renji had closed his door and had looked at the two before making his way down the stairs to wait for the rest of the group.

'_Eh, one of them must have forgotten something.'_

Sakura turned to Rukia and mouthed that they would talk about it on the way to the training grounds.

Rukia nodded in understanding and left to go torment her red-headed friend. Sakura began formulating plans in her head and had failed to notice that Toshiro had walked up behind her.

When she had finally felt his presence she spun around to face him. Unfortunately, she spun a little too hard and lost her balance. Toshiro quickly steadied her.

"Arigatou, Toshiro-kun."

A light blush dusted her cheeks.

"Doitashimashite, Sakura."

They made their way down the stairs and met the other two in the front room. They began walking through the busy streets of Konoha weaving in and out of various people.

As they came to the paths that only the shinobi of the village mainly used Sakura and Rukia walked ahead of Renji and Toshiro discussing plans and ideas.

"Well, what if we double-teamed him and threw him into the river?"

"Yeah! Then we can set off the trip wires so the berries drop."

"I have to say, this plan has made it onto my favorites."

"I couldn't agree with you more."

The two began laughing. Renji, being the curious guy he is, walked up to them.

"What is so funny up here?"

They stopped laughing and Rukia smirked at Renji who had slung his arms around their shoulders.

"Nothing that concerns you, baka."

Renji looked at Rukia.

"But I think it does."

A stress mark appeared on Sakura's head as she crossed her arms. She turned to look at him.

"Ever hear that curiosity killed the cat, nii-san?"

He looked at his sibling.

"Of course, who hasn't?"

Rukia caught on to Sakura's plot and joined in.

"Good. Then why are you taking the cat's place Renji?"

Renji now had a ticked mark on his head.

"**WHO ASKED YOU RUKIA?!"**

"**WELL YOU SHOULDN'T JUMP INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S BUSINESS!"**

The two continued on and didn't pay attention to anything else. Toshiro walked up and fell into step with Sakura.

She noticed this and turned to him.

"Hey Toshiro-kun. I have a feeling that it's going to be like this most of the day."

He nodded in agreement.

"It probably will be, and will get worse when Kurosaki arrives."

Sakura nodded.

"I just hope he was able to survive the past twenty four hours."

He raised an eyebrow and slightly turned his head to her.

She sighed and looked at him.

"Just about the only thing Naruto eats is ramen. And I'm pretty sure besides instant ramen the only other thing Naruto has in his house is spoiled milk."

Rukia and Renji had finally stopped in time to hear the last part of the conversation. Rukia made a face of disgust.

Renji began to laugh at the misfortune of his friend.

"Ha ha! Well I'm glad it wasn't me!"

Rukia hit him in the back of his head.

"Baka!"

Sakura sweat dropped as the two continued on with their bickering over one thing and then switching to a completely different subject.

**X**

**Ichigo and Naruto**

Ichigo was just barely holding himself back from sending the blonde next to him into the trees along the road.

'_ALL THIS KID EVER TALKS ABOUT IS RAMEN THIS OR RAMEN THAT! THEN HE GOES ON TO RANT ABOUT BECOMING HOKAGE _AND _BRINGING SOME BASTARD HOME!'_

"You know, I wish they'd make a spicy seafood medley ramen. You know how good that would be! Yum! Just thinking about it makes me hungry for more ramen!"

'_THAT'S IT! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!'_

Ichigo made a fist in his right hand and slowly pulled it back. Closing one eye and adjusting the angle of his arm.

The next part came in slow motion for both of them.

Ichigo released his fist and a battle cry as he threw his fist towards his annoying host.

"**Aghhhhhhhhh!"**

Naruto had continued to babble on and not pay attention to his companion and had completely brushed off the sound of a battle cry.

As Ichigo's fist connected with Naruto the blonde let out a cry and turned into a log with a 'poof'.

The real Naruto had appeared in front of him this time and still hadn't stopped his rambling.

Ichigo gritted his teeth and tried to keep his twitching hands from grasping Zangestu's hilt and taking a swipe at him.

After five more minutes of Naruto's useless conversation about ramen Ichigo gave in to his desire and pulled the zanpakuto from his back. The wrappings that covered Zangestu spiraled off.

"**AGHHHHHHH!"**

This time Naruto did turn around.

"HEY YOU KNOW IT'S RUDE TO INTERUPT……….hey, uh, what are you going to do with that…?"

Naruto asked nervously while pointing to the zanpakuto that was quickly approaching him.

"Uh, I gotta go!"

With that Naruto took off in the direction of the training grounds and Ichigo trailed behind still charging at the hyperactive blonde and occasionally taking a swipe here and there.

"**GET BACK HERE YOU RAMEN-OBSESSED HOKAGE WANNABE!"**

"**NO WAY! AND DON'T YOU DARE INSULT RAMEN! IT'S THE HOLYEST FOOD THAT WAS EVER CREATED!"**

"**YOU WISH, BAKA!"**

Ichigo continued to follow the shinobi to the training grounds.

**X**

**Sakura, Toshiro, Rukia, and Renji**

They had arrived at the training grounds a while ago and were now waiting on the others to show up. So far they hadn't seen any sign of someone else coming yet.

Toshiro was standing on the bridge leaning against the railing, while Sakura and Rukia were sitting on the railing opposite of him talking quietly and swinging their feet over the water that was running beneath them. Renji was leaning against one of the posts to the bridge and had fallen asleep.

They didn't have to wait too long until Sai and Rangiku had shown up. Sakura looked at Sai questioningly.

"The hokage summoned me to her office to bring her with me to the training grounds."

Sakura nodded and continued her conversation with Rukia and Rangiku who had recently joined them.

By some sort of a miracle Kakashi had arrived before the loud-mouthed hyperactive ninja.

Sai was the first to ask the all imposing question.

"Where's the dickless wonder?"

Except not in that exact wording.

Kakashi looked up from his book.

"I don't know."

Sakura glared at her once sensei.

'The stupid pervert can't even keep track of a ninja who is far from having any stealth, let alone be on time for anything.'

'Except for when the newest book in his series comes out.'

'Good point. Maybe we should burn all the bookstores that sell his porno books down.'

'We tried, remember?'

"Oh yeah…next time lets make sure he's out of town on a mission, then.'

Sakura was interrupted from her conversation with Inner Sakura when she heard familiar yelling that seemed to be getting closer by the second.

"FOR THE LAST TIME! RAMEN IS NOT HOLY!"

"YES IT IS! THE RAMEN GOD LOOKS DOWN UPON YOU WITH DISGUST AND SHALL BANISH YOU FROM HIS RAMEN PROMISED HOLY LAND!"

"YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I THINK OF YOUR HOLY RAMEN LAND?!"

"YEAH I DO!"

"THIS!"

Ichigo swiped at Naruto diagonally just barely missing the blonde.

They continued on for a while longer before Sakura and Rukia interfered. They went up to their respective victims and whacked them upside the head.

After several minutes things had somewhat quieted down. Kakashi finally pulled his face from his book.

"Alright guys. For our training session today we are going to have team battles."

"YES! I'M GOING TO BE WITH SAKURA-CHAN!"

Sakura hit her teammate over the head again.

"Baka! Let him finish!"

"Thank you Sakura, as I was saying se will be having team battles. Each team will consist of two people. It will also consist of one shinobi and one shinigami."

He took a small pause and his face was once again in his book.

"Since there is an odd amount one team will have two shinigami and one shinobi and we'll rotate the shinigami of that team for every battle."

Rangiku looked at Kakashi.

"Kakashi-san, what are the teams?"

He smiled and his one visible eye crinkled into an upside down U.

"Well, I suppose that we'll do it by who you're staying with. Of course with a few alterations here and there. So, Rangiku and Sai will be paired up, Ichigo and Naruto."

The duo glared at each other and if you looked closely enough you could see a spark of electricity traveling in between them.

"Toshiro and Sakura, and Renji, Rukia, and I."

Everyone besides Ichigo and Naruto nodded. They were still too busy glaring at each other to notice that everyone else had retreated to the sidelines except for there opponents.

Sai and Rangiku stared at the duo. She leaned over to her teammate.

"Maybe we should take them out now. It'll be a lot easier."

Sai nodded and took out his katana as Rangiku took out her zanpakuto. They raced towards their opponents and were soon behind them.

Only when they felt gold metal against their skin did they realize that they had been to busy arguing to notice that their spar had already started and realized that they were just pathetically defeated.

Ichigo began to incoherently rant about his 'stupid oblivious partner' and how he was stuck with a 'pathetic excuse for a ninja.'

"WHAT'D YOU SAY, CARROT TOP?!"

Now that just blew Ichigo's top off. The blonde had been pushing his luck all morning and he was officially out of it now.

Everyone ignored the two as Ichigo was wildly swinging Zangestu just barely missing Naruto. But became confused when twenty Narutos had appeared in front of him.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I guess we'll just move on to the next battle. Okay it will be Sai and Rangiku against Toshiro and Sakura."

Toshiro and Sakura got into defensive positions as well as Sai and Rangiku. Kakashi gave a lazy look at the teams.

"Ready? GO!"

With that, they charged at their opponents.

**X**

He he! A cliff hanger! I love them to death. But here's the thing. I need some ideas on what you guys would like to see happen in the battle.

Also if you guys can have any last suggestions for what you would like to see Sakura's zanpakuto be, abilities, and such then this is your last chance before the next chapter.

Good news though! I get out of school on Wednesday and will have more time to work on the story and will most likely be able to update more often.

**Kyuu: Gosh dang it. Just cuz YOU don't have to take finals and get out two days earlier than me…Anzu no Gaki.**

Yeah yeah, just because you _**had**_ to miss two more days of school Kyuu no Baka!


	6. Explanations

Sorry guys! I had written over half of the next chapter after putting up the previous but due to some storms my computer was out of service for the longest time. Or at least that's what it felt like. I really wanted to have the next chapter out by Friday but that wasn't possible.

I'll try my best to have the next one out soon!


	7. Chapter 7

Hey everyone! As promised I have the next chapter here for you guys! I'll try to update a couple times a week this month because in July, Kyuu and I are going to be pretty busy.

Kyuu and I have discussed the final details about Sakura's zanpakuto and I think we've tweaked just about everything out. It should be making its appearance soon enough.

And yes this chapter is when the crater makes its appearance. It may also show up in another as well. It depends.

**Kyuu:** BWAHAHAHAHA!! Her zanpakuto will pwn all!!

**X**

Sai pulled out his scrolls and his brush and began to draw ink lions. Sakura pulled out her kunai and quickly made work of the creatures. Shifting the kunai in her hand she made her way to her teammate.

Sai pulled out his own kunai and prepared to block Sakura. But when the weapons clashed she disappeared in a 'poof'.

Sai looked around the training area waiting for the reappearance of his female teammate.

Toshiro had quickly made his way to his lieutenant, dodging her various attacks without unsheathing Hyorinmaru.

Rangiku took a high diagonal swipe from the right, but he just used shunpo to dodge and reappear to her left side. She jumped back as he unsheathed his zanpakuto and a clinging of metal could be heard.

Sakura had masked her chakra and had stowed away underground. Just seconds ago he had started to use his chakra to try and find any hint as to where the rosette was.

She let her chakra flare as she burst from the ground spraying the surrounding area, including a chunk of what looked to be black asphalt that was imbedded with many smaller stones.(** K/N:** ß that stands for Kyuu's Note instead of Author's Note. And by the way…..OMG THE CRATER!! Its my favorite hunk of asphalt! - glomps Anzu-chan - Thanks!)

The black rock flew through the air and Sai just barely missed getting hit by the flying projectile. It continued to soar through the air and almost hit everyone's favorite blond-haired shinobi in the head. (**K/N: **Whoosh!! I love my crater!)

Sai had jumped up into a tree next to him to avoid the other debris, just as Sakura had planned and wanted. The clone on the ground disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.

Before Sai could react he was caught in a genjutsu, but quickly broke out of it. Sakura jumped from a higher branch in the next tree over and released the senbon from her hands.

Sai unsheathed his katana and blocked the needles. Sakura disappeared and reappeared next to Sai just barely missing him as he twisted his torso to dodge the attack.

Sai retaliated by swiping at Sakura with his katana. Sakura jumped back and leapt from left to right dodging the swipes of the gleaming katana. Soon enough they were approaching the two shinigami and their battle.

Out of the corner of his eye Toshiro could see the glimmer of a metal blade and his partner seemingly dancing with the deadly blade. They were advancing in his direction.

Keeping his eye on Rangiku but also keeping tabs on Sakura and Sai he counted down the time until his plan could be put into action.

Sakura could sense they were nearing the shinigami.

'_I hope Toshiro-kun's plan works out.'_

'_**What are you saying girl! Of course it is going to work! This is our Shiro-chan we're talking about here!'**_

Toshiro blocked Rangiku's slash and grabbed Sakura by the waist with one arm and used shunpo to create distance between them and there opponents. They were sitting on a tree branch at almost the top of the tree.

Both of them had masked their reiastu and Sakura her chakra. They watched in silence as the other team seemed to fly underneath them waiting until they were out of sight for the time being.

**X**

**Naruto**

Naruto was about ready to yell at Sai for letting the rock almost hit him when he noticed how small and light it looked. He bent down and tried to pick it up with one hand.

Only when he tried to pick it up it wouldn't budge.

'_Ha! I bet this is a test from Kaka-sensei! I will pick it up with one hand and chuck it at Sai-teme!' _(**K/N: **It really is a lot heavier than it looks people! And doesn't he sound a bit too much like Rock Lee…scary.)

**X**

**Back to the battle**

Sakura then made her way down a few feet and laid a genjutsu that would be activated when either Sai or Rangiku ran through the grove of trees. Releasing a quick flare of chakra Sakura had alerted them of their location.

Toshiro and Sakura ran back to the area they had previously fled from and awaited for their victims to come in.

Sai noticed the flare in chakra and told Rangiku to turn around and go back the way they had came and he would head them off. What he didn't expect was for them to be caught in a genjutsu that looked exactly like the forest. Only, it was a never ending forest.

After dispelling the genjutsu they changed their plans slightly and continued. They ran back into the clearing only to be ambushed by Toshiro and Sakura.

Sakura came down at Sai with a chakra infused foot and kicked the ground next to him sending him through the air and towards Toshiro and Rangiku along with Naruto and the black rock.

Sai landed on one knee on Rangiku's left facing her. This distracted her and she thought he was proposing to her.

Naruto and the rock continued to soar through the air and promptly landed in the river creating a tidal wave that washed the sleeping Renji from the bridge and ramming him into a tree upside down. He spat a fish out of his mouth.

"**BAKA! ITS NOT TIME FOR LUNCH YET AND I DON'T WANT SUSHI!"**

While Sai and Rangiku were distracted Sakura and Toshiro took the opportunity and put the blades to their throats, claiming victory.

Kakashi pulled his face from his book.

"The winners of this battle are Toshiro and Sakura."

Naruto had stood up in the river and went back to trying to pick up the black rock that seemed to make craters everywhere it landed. He made a clone and they both tried to pick it up but only managed to shift the heavy chunk of stone.

Putting their weapons away, they walked off to the bridge. Sakura walked up to Renji and started to poke his forehead.

"Are you sure you don't want lunch right now, it's noon."

Renji sat up so quick that he became dizzy and stumbled around before stepping on the flopping fish he had previously spit out.

Naruto and his clone, who he had dubbed "Ramen Knight", looked up as an imposing shadow seemed to cover them and the surrounding area by the second.

"Well Ramen Knight, it looks like its going to storm soon."

"Of course! You're a genius Naruto-sama!"

They heard a splash behind them but didn't see anything. They shrugged and continued with their self-appointed task.

Renji slowly rose from the water, a smirk plastered on his face as he pushed both of the Narutos into the water.

"Heh, that's for earlier."

Naruto jumped up from the water and they began to fight taking turns pushing each other underwater.

Rukia was staring at the clouds that were quickly approaching Konoha. Ichigo walked up behind her.

"Looks like our training is going to get cut short."

The female shinigami turned to him.

"Yeah, but at least we got some training in today."

Toshiro turned and started to walk over to Kakashi.

"It's going to start storming soon and this looks like it's a strong one at that."

The masked shinobi nodded.

"It looks that way."

Sakura walked over to Rukia shortly after Ichigo had left to go bug Renji and Naruto.

"Well, it doesn't look like we needed the plan after all."

Rukia turned to her with a grin.

"Not this time, but we can save it for some time in the near future."

Sakura nodded.

Kakashi turned to the rest of the group.

"Hey everyone I'm cutting training short today. There's a strong storm coming our way and I don't want to be caught in the middle of it."

They nodded in agreement and took off towards their respective lodgings. Naruto screaming something about ramen and began to charge to the famous ramen stand with Ichigo in tow.

Rangiku decided to go visit Tsunade again, not doubt wanting to have more sake. Sai trailing behind her knowing she would eventually get lost along the way and need his help.

Kakashi had already disappeared in his signature cloud of gray smoke no doubt visiting the memorial quickly before leaving to go back to his apartment to read more of his infamous book.

Toshiro looked over to Rukia and Renji, Rukia trying to keep Renji from eating at the current moment and to get him back to the house before it began to storm.

He looked back over to Sakura noticing that she was still staring up at the sky. She blinked rapidly a few times before taking her eyes from the sky above her and briskly walking over to Toshiro.

"The storm is moving in quicker than before and it's going to pour in a few minutes."

He nodded.

"I see, we'll have to use shunpo then."

Sakura nodded and they walked over to the other two. He cleared his throat to gain their attention.

"If you don't want to be soaked through than we need to leave now."

Rukia and Renji nodded in understanding and took off quickly. Sakura sighed.

"We better follow their example."

With that the duo was off and heading in the direction of her house. Sakura looked over to her right and grinned. Once the rooftops came into view she jumped on them and continued on her way.

Toshiro caught movement in the corner of his left eye and saw the kunoichi jump on to the rooftops and quickly gaining more ground than before. He followed suite and soon caught up to her.

'_Damn he's faster than what we thought inner!'_

'_**I know! Ugh! Just face it, we tend to pick the prodigies.'**_

Sakura sweated dropped.

'_Okay……aren't you going to miss your show again?'_

'_**Damn it all! Thanks for reminding me! Ja!'**_

While Sakura was distracted by her inner personnel, Toshiro had purposely stayed a short distance behind her waiting for the moment to strike.

'_**Wait for it kid, wait for it.'**_

'_I am waiting Hyorinmaru.'_

She turned around only to find that he was no longer behind her. She furrowed her eyebrows and turned back around.

'_**Now kid.'**_

He ran in a few meters in front of Sakura and by the time she saw him she was caught. She ran straight into the white haired taichou and was thrown onto his shoulder as he flash stepped across the roofs.

The scenery was all a blur to Sakura. She couldn't help but blush at being caught off guard so easily and the fact of who was carrying her.

Toshiro couldn't help but give a small smirk.

'_**Well kid, the plan worked out well.'**_

'_Hn.'_

Within a few minutes they were at the front steps of the house and Toshiro had put Sakura back down. A blush still adorned her face and Toshiro knew that everything had gone better than planned.

Turning the knob and entering the house Sakura took off her combat boots and walked over to a mirror in the hallway and took her hair out of its bun and took the senbon out putting them in a nearby drawer.

After walking in the door Toshiro had taken off his sandals and closed the door behind him. He walked over and looked at a few of the pictures before sitting on the couch.

Sakura carefully and silently peeked out from the wall.

'_Good. He isn't facing us!'_

'_**He he, I can't wait to see the look on his face.'**_

Sakura tip-toed over to the couch so that she was behind Toshiro.

'_On the count of three.' _

'_**One.'**_

'_Two.'_

'_**Three!'**_

She pounced on Toshiro from behind with her arms locked around his neck and laying on his back. She gave a small laugh.

"That's for earlier."

He smirked.

"Really now. Well I guess I have to get you back now."

She quirked her head questioningly to the side.

"Why? We're even now."

Before she even knew what hit her, her back was on the couch and Toshiro was hovering above her.

"That's not fair."

"It doesn't have to be."

A devious grin began to show on her face. He raised an eyebrow.

'_**KISS HIM GIRL! KISS HIM! LET HIM KNOW THAT HE IS OURS AND OURS ALONE!'**_

Sakura followed her inners advice and pecked him on the lips. What she didn't know was that she wasn't going to get off that easily though.

'_**There's the answer to your question kid. She likes you.'**_

He lowered himself down and engulfed her in a kiss. Surprised, she gave a small gasp allowing him entrance into her mouth. She let the surprise wash away as the overwhelming feeling of warmth overcame her senses.

While still kissing her, Toshiro brushed a few stray strands from her face and cupped it letting his thumb feel the softness of her cheek before sliding his hand behind her neck and stopping at the small of her back.

Their tongues continued to dance the tango as they shifted into a different position. Toshiro sat up and pulled Sakura to his lap without ever breaking the kiss.

Sakura played with his snowy white hair as they continued to battle for dominance. The sound of rain hitting the window panes was barely noted by either of the two.

Toshiro broke the kiss, out of breath, and she let her head rest on his shoulder, her arms still entwined around his neck. A flash of lightning bathed the room with light. Sakura shifted a little bit so that she could see his face.

"I wonder where Renji and Rukia are."

Toshiro was about to answer when the phone rang. Sakura gave a cry of protest and reluctantly got up to answer it.

Inner Sakura began to mumble.

'_**Evil, stupid, conniving, machine.'**_

'_I couldn't agree with you more.'_

She walked over to the table it resided on and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"**HEY SAKURA-CHAN!"**

She yanked the phone as far from her ear as she could.

"Naruto!"

"He he, uh sorry about that Sakura-chan."

She brought the phone back to her ear.

"It's okay, now why did you call me?"

"Oh, yeah! I kinda forgot about that."

Sakura sweat dropped.

"Oh! I remember now! Renji was hungry so he and Rukia came along with us and since it's starting to storm, they decided to stay at my house with Ichigo and me because it's closer than your house!"

"Oh, okay Naruto. I'll talk to you tomorrow then."

"Bye, Sakura-chan."

Toshiro had moved from the couch to the doorway next to Sakura and was leaning against it with his hands in his pockets. She walked over to him and stood on her tip-toes and kissed him.

He took his hands from the pockets and put them on her small waist pulling her closer to him.

"Who was it?"

"It was Naruto, he said that Renji and Rukia were going to stay at his house because of the storm."

He nodded and she yawned.

"I think you'd better go up to bed."

"No."

She looked up at him and he just lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Okay okay, fine. I'll go to bed."

**X**

Yatta! I finished another chapter! And its my longest yet! Woo hoo! I felt like it was time for some fluff. What about you Kyuu? **Kyuu: **So sweet. Sakura is so lucky!! - cries -

Also how was the training battle? Good, bad, needs work? Please let me know this was actually my first fight scene. Although I think I should have put more action into it but I guess that's just me. I tend to watch too many action movies.

Also uh my computer's DSL connection box is being gay. It keeps dying then coming back to life. It can't make up its mind and it's driving me crazy so then I complain to Kyuu about it and I guess it makes up for the drama we lost since school ended since apparently the last storm wasn't enough.

My mom swears there was a tornado but it just didn't touch down since one touched down in a city just a few miles over the state boarder line. It's less than five miles from our city.

**Kyuu: **That storm was scary. And I think your action scene was good for the first time. People tell her to stop txting me about her internet connection. She is taking over my inbox. - glares -

Oh and for the readers. Sorry for putting so many K/Ns on there. I just love my crater. Hehe. Ja ne!

Anzu: -- (sweat drop) I know you love your crater and I think that they get it now too. And Kyuu isn't kidding when she said that thing was heavy! It took both of us to pick that thing up!


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys! As I promised I'm updating again. Thanks for all of your support everyone! And a special thanks to my beta Kyuu.

Yes Kyuu, I am praising you. And don't let it go to your head, myself and others are waiting for you to update your story. So, after finishing going over this if you would please **GET TO WORK ON IT!** (After you finish your amvs though)

**Kyuu:** Aw dang… first your all like makin' me feel good. Then you go an' ruin it. Sheesh.

I'm busy! And I'm just never in the mood. Haha.

I'm also working on that HitsuSaku amv, just for you. All you readers can see it when I'm done too. Now on to the BETAing of the sotory! Sorty! Sroty! Story! …sorry can't spell today…

Anzu: As I found out earlier.

**X**

**Sakura's Room**

_Sakura rolled onto her side, then to her other before onto her back glaring up at the ceiling. Her head turned to the right and she stared at the alarm clock._

'_Why can't I sleep! It's three in the frickin' morning!'_

'_**JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SLEEP DOESN'T MEAN SOME OTHER PEOPLE CAN'T!'**_

Sakura sweat dropped and blew a piece of hair from her face.

'_Inner.'_

'_**Yeah Kura-chan?'**_

'_If I can't sleep, doesn't it mean you can't sleep too?'_

Inner was sitting cross legged her face resting in her hands and her head slightly tilted to the side in a thinking position.

Then a light bulb suddenly flashed above her head and she jumped up.

'_**Oh yeah! I kinda forgot about that.'**_

'_You tend to forget a lot of things.'_

'_**Huh? What was that Kura-chan I was thinking.'**_

'_Nothing at all Inner, nothing at all.'_

Inner Sakura suddenly got what Sakura had said a few sentences back.

'_**Hey, I'm not stupid!'**_

Sakura rolled her eyes.

'_I wasn't saying that. I was saying-'_

Inner Sakura crossed her arms across her chest and huffed.

'_**Maybe not but you were implying it.'**_

'_No, what I was implying was you tend to forget things that you need to remember.'_

'_**OH SHIT! THAT REMINDS ME! THEY ARE HAVING A MARATHON OF MY FAVORITE SERIES STARTING IN A FEW MORE MINUTES AND I'M NOT READY!'**_

'_See I told you that you tend to forget things.'_

'_**Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, where did I put that box of popcorn?'**_

'_How would I know?'_

'_**I wasn't asking you I was-'**_

'_Talking to yourself.'_

'_**Shut up. What I was trying to say was it was a rhetorical question! And aren't **__**you**__** technically talking to yourself by talking to me?'**_

'…_What ever you say Inner, what ever you say.'_

With that Sakura just continued to lie on the bed staring at the ceiling. She rolled back onto her stomach with her face in her hands.

'_Okay! That's it! I'm getting out of bed and-' _

Cue stomach growl.

'_-eating something.'_

She ripped the covers off of her and put her feet on the floor before recoiling them.

'_Why does the floor always have to be so cold?!'_

She slowly placed them back on the floor and stood up stretching her limbs. She walked over to the door when her mirror caught her attention. She looked a little disheveled but not extremely. She shrugged and continued on her journey to the kitchen.

She slowly opened the door a crack and used it like a peep hole searching the hallway making sure she wouldn't be heard. Seeing that Toshiro wasn't up she opened the door farther and stepped into the hallway.

She was almost to the stairs when Inner decided to pop back in.

'_**Girl who in the world would be up and moving around at this hour?'**_

'_Gaara.'_

'_**He's different though. He has insomnia. He can't sleep.'**_

'_So, uh what about shishou though?'_

'_**Okay you kind of caught me there. She's probably drinking sake right now with Rangiku too.'**_

Sakura shrugged and stealthily walked down the stairs and into the kitchen careful of the change in level.

'_Renji-baka.'_

Opening the cupboard she took a small plate, graham crackers, peanut butter cups, marshmallows, and a skewer out from various shelves. She lifted the grate off of the stove and put two marshmallows on the skewer and lit the burner and started to toast them.

When they were finished she put them on top of the peanut butter cups and topped it off with another graham cracker. **(A/N: Yum! This is so good and I just had one too! K/N: AH! I want one Anzu-chan!)**

She picked up one of the s'mores and took a bite out of it.

'_Yum, gooey goodness.'_

"Eh-Hm."

She turned around in the middle of taking another bite. There stood Toshiro in his shinigami attire minus his haori, but Hyorinmaru was still resting against his back.

She swallowed and smiled.

"I thought you were asleep."

"I was for a while, but I had to go take care of a hollow. Then I came back and was getting ready to go back to sleep, but I heard someone moving around in here so I came to check it out."

"Oh. I'm just making s'mores. You want one?"

"No."

"Are you sure."

"Yes."

"Oh, so you **do** want one."

"No, I don't want one."

"Are you positive you don't want one?"

"Yes."

"Oh so that means that you d-"

"No, I don't want a s'more."

"Okay."

She continued to finish her s'mores while Toshiro made himself some tea. When she was finished she rinsed the plate and put it into the sink before sitting at the table across from Toshiro.

Said person looked up from his tea and raised an eyebrow at the staring kunoichi.

"Is there something that you need?"

"Nope."

"Then, why are you looking at me?"

"Because I'm bored and I'm not tired. And if Renji was home I'd probably prank him crazy just for the entertainment."

"Well, he isn't here and the storm has calmed down somewhat but it's-"

He looked over to the clock on the wall next to the doorway.

"-four in the morning and I don't think they'd like to be woken up at this time."

Sakura lifted her head up from the table.

"Well, knowing Naruto they're probably still awake because he sleep talks and it's always about ramen or beating someone."

He gave her a pointed look and she shrugged.

"You learn these things when you are on the same team as him for so long. Heck, even people who have only been on a few missions with him learned this quickly. SO, they should be coming back here shortly and crashing for most of the afternoon."

**X**

**Naruto's**

Since there were only two bedroom's Ichigo and Renji let Rukia have the bedroom that Ichigo had been using. Well, more like Rukia threatened and beat them into letting her have it. Same difference.

Rukia thrashed from one side to another trying to muffle out the sleep talking of Naruto. But to no avail, It seemed like nothing would work.

Ichigo and Renji in the living room were also coming up with the same conclusions. Renji got up and walked into the kitchen on the other side of the room and began to randomly pull out drawers in search of something.

Ichigo sat on the chair and glared down the hallway and at the blonde's door willing it to catch on fire. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at it, it didn't.

He got up and walked over to Renji.

"What are you looking for?"

Renji looked up from over his shoulder.

"Something to muffle the baka's sleep talking."

Ichigo nodded and began to help in the search hoping to find something and quickly. The two were still continuing to look when a half asleep, annoyed Rukia walked into the kitchen and opened a bottom cupboard door.

Renji looked over from his place and Ichigo turned his head.

"Rukia what are you looking for?"

Ichigo's eyes slightly widened before a sinister grin made it's way on to his face.

"That'll shut the kid up for sure."

Renji looked at the shinigami representative with an 'explain' look on his face.

"Just watch and you'll see."

Renji did as Ichigo suggested and a grin similar to Ichigo's made it's way on to his face.

"Oh, I see, good thinking Rukia."

The female paid no attention to the two males in the room and made her way to the room that held the source of her sleepless night. She opened the door and crept over to the bedside.

"No Ramen Knight! That's beef ramen not miso pork!"

"Well I don't care! Send out more troops! Tonight is supposed to be miso pork ramen night!"

Holding a frying pan above her head she readied herself for the oncoming attack. She swung it down and the object made its mark. Except the person she was aiming for had shifted and had barely missed being hit.

"Come on troops I know you can hit harder than that! That won't help us take over the vegetable kingdom!"

She growled in annoyance and started to swing every which way. That's the scene that greeted Ichigo and Renji when they walked through the doorway. After many, uh, failed attempts Rukia gave up and walked up to her two companions.

"The storm has calmed down so I'm going back to Sakura's."

She pushed through them and went to get the few things she had brought with her. Ichigo and Renji looked at each other.

"I'm not staying here, I'm going with you guys."

Renji was to tired to argue or complain.

"Grab your things then and hurry."

Ichigo threw what he had taken out of his bag back in and threw it over his shoulder. They nodded to each other and took off in the drizzle of rain. Using shunpo they raced across the roof tops with ease and made it to the house before the rain started to pick back up.

Renji went to open the door but found it locked. He growled in frustration and started to look under the doormat and various places thinking Sakura left a spare key somewhere close to the door in case she locked herself out.

Meanwhile Sakura and Toshiro watched them from the kitchen looking out through a window in the living room. From outside you wouldn't be able to see them sitting in the kitchen at the table.

Toshiro looked over to Sakura after watching Renji fall backwards over the railing on the porch.

"Have you had enough entertainment yet?"

Sakura shook her head trying to get her laughter under control.

"No, I'm going to let Rukia in but leave those two out for a while longer."

He took a drink from his cup and raised an eyebrow lowering it down on to the table.

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

She turned her head slightly from the window and a gleam shone on her green eyes for a split second.

"Like this."

She crept over to a window of to the side of the door that the trio were trying to open and slid it open making sure that not a sound was heard. She kept close to the house so that the overhang sheltered her from the rain. She shimmied over to the corner of the house and paused.

She took a nearby small mirrored garden globe that was resting by her feet.

'Hm, the storm must have blown it off.'

Shrugging she adjusted it so that she could see Ichigo, Renji, and Rukia in it clearly. She had to wait a few moments before her opening came. Ichigo and Renji were fighting about Ichigo helping Renji get up from the bush he had fallen into when he fell off the railing.

Ichigo reached over the railing to help pull Renji out. But the bushes had other plans. Renji was stuck pretty good and Ichigo ended up falling over the railing too and getting stuck in another nearby bush.

Sakura sprang into action. She used the bird call that Rukia and her had decided to use if they ever were putting a phase into action. Rukia whirled around and saw Sakura next to the corner of the house waving her over.

She nodded and looked over her shoulder to see that Ichigo and Renji were still fighting and sprinted over to were Sakura stood. Sakura pulled Rukia around the corner and put a finger up to her lips signaling to be quiet.

She had pulled Rukia around at the right time too. If she hadn't have then Renji would have caught a glimpse of her. She let out a breathe of air she had been holding and motioned Rukia over to the open window. Rukia understood and the two females climbed in and closed it silently.

Rukia quietly made her way upstairs to quickly change into a pair of dry clothes. She met up with Toshiro and Sakura in the kitchen with a cup of tea waiting for her.

She nodded in thanks before she and Sakura burst into a fit of laughter.

"Th-that was good thinking Sakura!"

Both continued to laugh Toshiro just sat there in amusement.

"I-I know!"

They continued to laugh as they watched Renji and Ichigo finally pull themselves from the branches of the bushes before falling into a mud puddle.

**X**

**Outside**

"**ICHIGO GET YOUR LAZY ASS OFF THAT BUSH AND HELP ME GET OUT OF THIS ONE!"**

"**WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M TRYING TO DO?! I'M STUCK TOO!"**

"**DAMN BUSH RELEASE ME BEFORE I HAVE TO USE ZABIMARU ON YOU!"**

"**RENJI YOU BAKA! IT'S NOT LIKE THE BUSH CAN RESPOND!"**

"**OH YEAH! THEN GET ME OUT OF THIS THING!"**

Renji tried to get out of the bush and almost succeeded. As he tried to heave himself from it he was plowed into by Ichigo who had just gotten himself out of his bush.

They flew through the air for a few seconds before plummeting to the ground below and into a puddle.

"**DAMN IT ALL ICHIGO! NOW WE ARE COMPLETELY SOAKED!"**

"**IT IS NOT MY FAULT THAT YOU WANTED TO GET OUT OF THAT DAMN BUSH THAT BAD!"**

"**WELL IT IS YOUR FALUT THAT WE ARE SITTING IN A PUDDLE COVERED IN MUD!"**

"**YEAH WELL**…..wait, where's Rukia?"

Renji looked around.

"Now that you mention it, by now she would usually be yelling at us and hitting us over the head."

**X**

**Inside**

Rukia and Sakura laughed harder when they were able to catch snippets of the two's conversation.

Sakura looked over to Rukia while wiping a tear from her eye that had appeared from laughing so hard.

"Well, I guess we should let them in now..."

Rukia nodded and stood up and walked with her to let them in. They opened the door to be greeted at the sight of two muddy shinigami looking for their female companion and yelling her name.

"**RUKIA! WHERE DID YOU GO!"**

"**RUKIA! WE ARE NOT PLAYING HIDE AND GO SEEK! WHERE ARE YOU!"**

Rukia leaned against the door frame.

"I know that baka."

Ichigo and Renji whipped around and stared at their friend.

"**WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO!"**

"**MORE IMPORTANTLY HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE HOUSE?!"**

Sakura raised her hand.

"That would be me."

The two guys looked at each other and chorused the same thought.

"We should have known."

**X**

Woo Hoo! Another chapter conquered!

**does happy dance**

Thanks for reading everyone! Please leave a review!

Also Kyuu, I'm looking forward to seeing that chapter soon. Because I know it's going to be hard to update within the oncoming weeks.

**Kyuu: **Ugh. Pushy, pushy. You gaki.

Ja ne!

Anzu: Ya ya ya, baka.

Ja!


	9. Chapter 9

Hey guys! Another chapter is here and sorry for the wait! My internet is being stupid again and refuses to work when I decide to post another chapter for some reason.

It also took a while to get the internet to work so I could get the translations that I needed for this chapter.

Also a **BIG** thank you to Kyuu for her HitsuSaku amv! (Hugs Kyuu) The link is in my profile for it.

Well any way, here's the chapter!

**Kyuu:** Your welcome Gaki! Sorry that Vegas was being dumb. It deleted half of my work…gomen nasai.

Anzu:Ya, ya, ya you're still a Baka Kyuu.

**X**

**In the kitchen**

Sakura, Rukia, and Toshiro were sitting at the table while Renji and Ichigo were getting out of their sopping wet clothes upstairs. It was only a matter of time when the two would come crashing down. Literally.

Renji and Ichigo were having a discussion…uh, more like a feud, when one of the two failed to see the stairway. Resulting in the tangled mass of limbs that was moving around like a rogue bowling ball.

Toshiro looked up to see the two trying to untangle themselves and semi accomplish the feat. The two females just ignored the ruckus that their companions were causing.

After a few more minutes, Ichigo and Renji joined the others at the table. Renji leaned back in his chair and nodded in thanks when a cup of tea was placed in front of him by his sister. One was also placed in front of Ichigo who also thanked her.

Sakura sat back down and took a sip of her own tea. It warmed her insides as it slid down her throat. She welcomed the warmth and savored it as she felt her body absorb it.

She sighed, it was only a matter of time before she would have to return to Soul Society and leave behind everything she knew here in the shinobi world.

She had heard about everything that had happened from the three taichous betrayal to the bounto getting into Soul Society. Many things had happened in such a short time and she knew that she could help out there more than what she could here.

She would be sure to stop by and visit, but she wouldn't be able to promise them when. Especially if there was going to be a war soon.

'_**You know it's been a while since you've used your zanpakuto.'**_

She sighed again.

'_I know, and I need to practice unless I want to become rusty and I can't afford that right now.'_

'_Besides, __**you**__ are my zanpakuto.'_

'_**Oh yeah, I guess I'm just so used to being called your inner after being here for so long.'**_

'_I know it was the only way that I could explain you at the time.'_

'_**Yeah, I remember that. I also remember the pig and her mind techniques and trying to take control.'**_

Sakura grimaced.

'_Yeah, I could do without that again.'_

Her 'inner' nodded in agreement.

'_**That and the migraine that followed.'**_

'_Yeah, I don't think we were the only ones who had gotten one from it either though.'_

'_**Serves her right! There is only room for me in here…besides you of course.'**_

'_Good save.'_

She smiled cheekily at Sakura.

'_**Thank you.'**_

'_So, Hisuikaitou, how about we go out and train a little bit later tonight after the storm is passed?' _(1)

'_**You know its been a while since we've used that name…and HELL YEAH! I CAN'T WAIT TO SLICE SOMETHING DOWN TO SIZE!'**_

'_Okay! Sheesh, you don't have to yell!'_

She rubbed her head sheepishly.

'_**Sorry 'bout that.'**_

Noting that her tea was almost gone she stood up and poured more into her cup. She sat back down and was dragged into a conversation that had been started by Rukia's drawings.

"Jeez Rukia, you still don't know how to draw."

A ticked marked was beginning to form on the side of her forehead.

"I have to agree with Ichigo, Rukia. You can't draw."

"Oh really Renji, well, then you can share his fate too."

She whacked both of them on the head and sat back down. She turned to Sakura.

"What do you think Sakura?"

She handed her sketch pad over to said person. She flipped through the pages looking at various pictures.

"Kawai!"

They went on about the bunnies that she had drawn for a little while longer before they decided to at least to try and get a few more hours of sleep.

Sakura had been able to get only an hour more of sleep. So instead of getting out of bed she stared at the ceiling above her thinking.

'_Okay, Hisuikaitou, how about we go train? It looks like the rain has stopped for now.'_

'_**Okay, yawn, I'm ready.'**_

Sakura crept quietly out of her bed and changed into a pair of her training clothes and made sure to grab her soul candy.

'_You know, I have never had to use this since we had been brought here.'_

'_**Well, now it can be put to good use.'**_

She walked down the hall as quietly as she could and out of the house taking the path of a training ground that was hardly used. The branches on the trees swayed with the wind in a dance-like manner.

The winding path came to an end as the training grounds came into sight. A gentle smile made its way onto her face. It would defiantly feel much better after practicing for a little bit. It always seemed to make her feel at peace.

Walking into the clearing she set the small bag that she had brought with her next to a tree. She took out her soul candy and came out of her gigai.

She began to stretch out her muscles warming them up.

'_Wow, I don't know how much longer I was going to be able to stand being in there.'_

As she finished stretching she noticed the modified soul was waking up.

Sakura smiled, "I'm going to train for a while you can walk around just stay nearby and don't let anyone else see you."

"Okay."

Sakura shifted into a thinking pose.

"I think I'll call you Akina." (2)

"Akina, I like it."

With that Akina walked through a small path that Sakura recognized as one that lead to a small clearing.

She dropped into a fighting stance with her right hand grabbing the hilt of the zanpakuto that was tucked into her obi.

The guard resembled wings inlaid with green and the hilt was covered by white ribbons that were wrapped so that it looked like a flat braid.

Pulling it out of its sheath she placed it so that it looked as if it were dividing her in half and the blade was pointed towards the sky. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

'_Are you ready?'_

'_**Yeah! I can't wait to stretch out and let loose for a little while.'**_

'_O-kay, how can you go from half asleep to hyper in less than ten minutes?'_

She shrugged.

'_**I have no clue.'**_

'_Well, when you find out let me know.'_

Sakura opened her eyes.

"Arise from the shadowy depths, Hisuikaitou!"

With that her zanpakuto changed into it's shikai form.

The handle's two white ribbons were still in there exact same place except that an onyx ribbon braided through the center of the two ribbons and was long enough that it could be wrapped around the arm or hand if needed.

The blade's color had melted into a dark grayish, blackish color just before the blade met the guard, and the hilt was a crescent-shaped opening with the points of the crescent moon facing the towards the point of the blade.

A single tear drop-shaped moonstone was in between the points and started so that its point was equal to the points on the moon and the rounded part dropped farther down toward the point.

If you would have blinked you would have missed Sakura. She flashed from the middle of the field into the trees. From their she flashed to the other side of the grounds. She continued this for a little while longer.

'_I should have practiced flash steps more often.'_

'_**I'll say! Girl its no wonder Toshiro was able to surprise you so easily. I wonder if he took lessons from Yoruichi.' **_

'_Who knows. But back to the subject of my oh so sluggish flash steps. Do you have any ideas on how to regain my speed besides using weights?'_

Hisuikaitou smirked.

'_**Nope. It looks like we'll be doing this the hard way since we don't have someone here who can attack as so that we have to dodge to regain the speed.'**_

Sakura's shoulders slumped.

'_It's a good thing I put them in my bag.'_

She walked back over to the tree and opened it, shifting the contents until she pulled a pair of red weights out.

She carefully put them on and tied them so that they wouldn't surprise her by dropping onto her feet.

'_I never thought that I would have to use these as a shinigami but, there is no changing that.'_

'_**Got that right. Now hurry up I wanna train!'**_

'_Okay, okay. Jeez, we'll practice some of __those__ attacks too.'_

'_**FOR REAL! YES! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I THOUGHT YOU WOULD NEVER LET ME PRACTICE THOSE HERE!'**_

'_Well, since we are going back to Seireitei with Renji and the others I figured we might want to get in as much training as we could before we leave.'_

'_**You decided to go ahead and go back?'**_

'_Yeah, I miss it so much and-'_

'_**You mean you don't want to let a certain someone leave.'**_

Hisuikaitou had her hands on her hips.

Sakura rubbed her head sheepishly.

'_Yeah, I guess I kinda have a crush-'_

She crossed her arms.

'_**Sakura this is no crush. You fell for him and fell hard.'**_

Sakura let out a sigh.

'_I know.'_

Hisuikaitou smiled victoriously.

'_**Yeah, and I believe that even if you did try to stay here more than just that one said person wouldn't let that happen.'**_

'_And by that you mean?'_

'_**Everybody that was assigned the mission. Though I am not completely sure about Ichigo.' **_

She stood in her thinking pose.

'_**But with him I believe he wants you to too because he is starting to warm up to us after we bashed Naruto in the head and he hasn't had the chance to talk to us yet. That and we are just to fun to not be around!'**_

Sakura sweat dropped.

'_Where in the universe do you get all of this energy?'_

'_**I don't know and lets train already! Besides you've already asked me that.'**_

'_Okay! Here we go!'_

Sakura shifted so that her legs were shoulder a widths length apart and raised her left arm so that it was parallel with the ground and her right arm was bent so that it was parallel with her left arm and the zanpakuto was parallel to it as well.

She shifted her weight to her right leg and pushed her left leg forward. She swung out her right arm along with Hisuikaitou and cried out as it cut through the air.

"Whispering haunt!"

She created a wave of earth that followed her directions as she commanded it with her zanpakuto. She lifted her arm up along with Hisuikaitou and the wave grew taller.

With a final sideways slash of her zanpakuto the wave of earth fell back into place.

Hisuikaitou began to whine.

'_**I thought you said we would do something hard!'**_

'_We will! I just want to make sure that I still have this stuff down before we try anything too extreme.'_

'_**Oh.'**_

'_Now will you let me get back to going through the different techniques or are we going to continue babbling?'_

'_**Go ahead and continue just hurry up!'**_

'_Fine, what ever. Jeez, you would think that this was some race to see who's got the best moves.'_

'_**Not yet.'**_

'_And what do you mean by that?'_

'_**NOTHING! JUST GET BACK TO PRACTICING ALREADY! I WANT TO ACHIEVE MY BANKAI SOMEWHERE IN THE NEAR FUTURE YOU KNOW!'**_

Sakura stumbled.

'_WHAT!'_

'_**Well duh! If there's going to be a war I would like to be in the center of all of the real action.'**_

'_BUT IT TAKES YEARS TO GET BANKAI AND EVEN MORE AFTERWORDS JUST TO MASTER IT!'_

'_**I never said we had to master it besides IF you let me we just might be able to get it shortly after the war starts.'**_

'_YOUR INSANE! I HAVEN'T EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT GETTING BANKAI BEFORE!'_

'_Yeah well you said a while ago you wanted to be stronger so that you didn't have to be protected anymore.'_

'_**Besides what do you have to lose?'**_

Sakura mumbled.

"My sanity, or at least what's left of it."

'_**What was that? I didn't catch it.'**_

'_Nothing, and why do you want me to get bankai now? I mean, you have never mentioned it before.'_

'_**Well, it's because I remember that one time not too long ago you wanted to get it in order to help protect others more than what you can now.'**_

Sakura sighed.

'_I'll think about it.'_

Hisuikaitou smiled.

'_**That's the attitude!'**_

She rolled her eyes.

'_What ever, let's just get back to training.'_

'_**Okay!'**_

Sakura continued to train, alternating between flash steps, kidou, shikai, and other various things that she could come up with. She soon took a quick break and pulled a water bottle from her bag.

'_**Hey Sakura?'**_

'_Yeah? What is it?'_

'_Well, I was wondering. Will we be able to use our techniques that we learned here as ninja?'_

There wasn't an answer.

'_**Sakura-'**_

'_I have no clue. The only way to find out is when we get back to Soul Society.'_

Hisuikaitou smiled.

'_**Well then, we will just have to test that theory then.'**_

Sakura smiled and continued to train and learn more complicated attacks from Hisuikaitou.

'_I have a feeling that after you get done teaching me all of these attacks and drilling them into my head that you aren't going to let me rest and make me practice them until I can barely stand. Right?'_

She had an all knowing look on her face while Hisuikaitou had a guilty look on her face. She began to wave her hands in front of her.

'_**Uh, okay, okay, you caught me! But it is in your best interest that I'm doing it though.'**_

'_I know, so let's get this show on the road…we need to get back before everyone wakes up.'_

'_**Good point. Okay so you need to work on how much control you have on that final wave. It's good up until that point.'**_

'_Okay.'_

They continued to work on the attacks and strategies that Hisuikaitou knew and wanted to test out to see if they would be of any help. After a few more minutes, she returned her zanpakuto back into its sealed form and had gathered her stuff heading in the direction of her gigai.

But little did they know that someone had carefully concealed themselves in a nearby tree and had seen the last part of the session.

'_You certainly have grown, Sakura. But are you ready for the upcoming obstacles that are beginning to make their presence known…?'_

**X**

**(1)** Hisuikaitou- Jaded Phantom

**(2)** Akina- spring flower

There is chapter eight people! Can anyone guess as to who was watching the last part of Sakura's training?

I'll give each of you two guesses, who ever gets it right first will get a prize! I can't think of a prize right now but I will discuss it with the winner!

I will reveal who won in the next chapter! Although they'll already know. He he!

**Kyuu:** Woo! Another chapter gone by. Am I eligible for this contest thing, Zu-chan? And hooray! You used my favorite name! And the release thingy. I feel special. Ja ne!

Anzu: No, not this time but you never know when you're going to get an unexpected surprise.

(Btw, Zu-chan, Hiro-sensei was surprised I knew what Ja ne meant…the only kind of good bye besides Sayonara we learned was Matane. Haha you should have seen his face though, it was great. I wish you were taking Japanese with me… )

Anzu: I know I wish I was too! Dang, I really wish that there was some way I could take the class with you.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey everyone! Thanks to all of you who reviewed! Shortly after the fourth of July updates will become fewer for a little while but I'll try my best to make sure there is at least one chapter a week.

No one had guessed our mystery person correctly but many of you were close. Also Sasuke will make a brief appearance in a few chapters or so.

**Kyuu: **I would have guessed correctly!! Maa, so mean to me…gaki.

Would anybody be so kind as to give me a plate of cookies? It might help me start that new story I was supposed to start a long time ago…with the OCs in it. I already told Anzu-chan I'm gonna start it this week. So maybe by next week I'll update. If I get cookies. -puppy dog eyes-

**X**

**At the Training Grounds**

Sakura continued down the winding path until she came across the clearing her gigai had chosen to relax in. She moved a branch away from her head and preceded into the clearing.

Her gigai was sitting on a large rock near a small pond and was kicking her feet around. Sakura walked up to her with a smile on her face.

"Hey Akina."

"Hey."

Sakura dropped her bag near the rock and took off her sandals and tabi and joined Akina.

"Sorry I didn't let you out sooner."

Akina smiled at her.

"I know you were busy. It's okay."

Sakura scratched her head sheepishly.

"_Yeah, but I still should have made some time."_

She looked up to the sky.

'_Wow, time goes by pretty quickly.'_

'_**Yeah, yawn, it does.'**_

'_You know, even after training, I am still not tired.'_

Hisuikaitou looked at her funny.

'_**What? How can you not be tired?!'**_

She shrugged.

'_I don't know. I mean I am tired, but I don't feel like I could sleep.'_

'_**Oh.'**_

Sakura brought her attention back to the surface of the water.

'_We better head back. It's close to eight already.'_

'_**Yawn, okay. Let's g-…'**_

'_Uh? Hisuikaitou? Hisuikaitou, are you okay?'_

'_**Wha-…? Yeah, just sleepy…'**_

Sakura sweat dropped.

Akina turned to look at Sakura.

'_I really don't want to keep her in her pill form the entire time. But I have to get back into my gigai.'_

'_**Why don't you ask the others about it?'**_

'_I will Hisuikaitou, and thanks!'_

'_**No problem. NOW I AM GOING TO SLEEP!'**_

'_O-kay. You do that then.'_

She sighed and stood up.

"Hey we have to head back."

"Okay."

Sakura put on her tabi and sandals and then returned to her gigai making sure that Akina was put into a small pouch that she put into the bag. She threw the bag onto her shoulder and began down the path once again.

**X**

**Mystery Person**

The person who had been concealing themselves stepped out of their hiding place and stretched a little bit before coming out further into the light revealing a blonde woman with her hair in two low pig tails. She sighed.

"I better get back to the office. I wonder if Matsumoto is ready for another drink?"

She smiled, "Better make sure that Shizune hasn't hid the sake again."

**(K/N:** Legasp! Tsunade! I was right, damnit….)

**X**

**Sakura's House**

Ichigo was close to falling off the bed. In fact he was gripping the edge of the bed like his life was depending on it. He scowled.

'_Nobody told me that I was going to have to share a bed with Renji. I thought I was going to get the couch.'_

**Flashback**

Everyone was in the kitchen sitting at the table talking about anything that seemed to be interesting or what ever popped into their head at that particular second in time.

Shortly after they decided that they were in need of sleep. Rukia, Toshiro, and Sakura finished the remaining tea in their cups before depositing them into the nearby sink.

Ichigo walked over and also put his in the sink. Renji had walked into the living room, cup still in hand. Ichigo made his way into the living room not seeing Renji as he rounded the corner.

Renji at that moment had turned to empty the rest of his cup into the sink right as they collided. The cup became airborne while the two shinigami met the floor for the second time in the time span of a few hours.

They watched in slow motion as the cup flew and spilt its contents across the couch. They exchanged glares.

"I was going to sleep there!"

"Well not anymore!"

They continued to glare at each other. Rukia stood at the top of the stairs.

"Now what did you two do?"

Their eyes slightly widened and chorused, "Nothing!"

Rukia gave them a disbelieving look but returned to her room anyway wanting to get some well needed sleep.

Renji turned to Ichigo.

"We need to clean this mess up before anyone comes downstairs."

Ichigo nodded and they got to work. Renji took the cup and put it in the sink and got out a few old towels while Ichigo got out a stain remover bottle from a nearby closet and they began.

Ichigo sprayed the sofa's cushion while Renji got a towel wet and rang out the extra water. He went into the living room and started to rub the sprayed area.

After going through the process several times they managed to get the stain out of the fabric. Unfortunately, the couch wouldn't be dry enough for Ichigo to sleep on it.

**End Flashback**

Which is what had landed him in his current situation. Renji shifted and was now laying across the bed with his legs resting on Ichigo. Ichigo glared at Renji's feet that were dangerously close to his face.

'_If he doesn't move his feet in two seconds, I am going to kick him off of this bed.'_

Unfortunately he wasn't going to get that chance. Renji had retracted his feet only for him to stretch them out and push Ichigo off the bed instead. Ichigo glared at him from the floor. If you were to look from where Renji was, you would only see him from his eyes up.

'_That's it. I'm going to the midget's room.'_

He got up and grabbed a pillow and blanket before he opened the door exiting the room. When Renji heard the door close he opened one eye and smirked. Everything was going according to plan.

Satisfied that he had done his part he could only hope that he had predicted their reactions correctly. With that he closed his eye and went to sleep.

**X**

Ichigo knocked on Rukia's door and was met with silence. He continued to knock on the door. After a few more seconds he gave up and opened the door and closed it softly behind him.

He walked over to the side of her bed and crouched down. He gently shook her. Her eyebrows furrowed before she lazily opened an eye.

"Yeah?"

Her voice was slightly scratchy from sleep.

"You mind if I sleep on the floor?"

"Why?"

He knew he couldn't tell her about the couch so he had to improvise.

"Because when the Baka finally wakes up and realizes we're not there I don't want to be in the living room just for him to find me and talk more about his ramen and shit."

She nodded, she knew very well that it would cause a ruckus and everyone would be woken up.

"What about Renji?"

He scowled and she raised an eyebrow. He didn't want to tell her about that episode either so he improvised again.

"I was sleeping in there until he started to snore like a buzz saw." **(A/N: That's what my sister sounds like when snores and my dad sounds like a freight train! K/N:** One of these days I'm gonna catch YOU snoring…haven't yet, though. A/N: yeah, the only thing we can catch is Cashew's sleep talking.**)**

Rukia had no clue what a buzz saw was, but if she could hear Renji's snoring like he was beside her using a megaphone, then she didn't want to hear one, ever.

She nodded, she was too tired to argue right now.

"Okay."

He nodded in thanks and made a makeshift bed on the floor at the foot of the bed and went to sleep. About an hour or so later he woke up to someone against his chest. He opened his eyes to see Rukia.

"Sorry but I'm cold."

"It's fine."

He picked her up and put her in bed. She looked at him angrily.

"The reason I wasn't sleeping up here was because I was cold idiot!"

He looked at her as he walked over to the other side of the bed.

"I know you are cold, that's why we're both going to sleep on the bed instead of the floor."

"Oh."

"Now be quiet and go to sleep."

She nodded and scooted closer to him.

"Night Ichigo."

"Night Rukia."

A while after that Rukia woke up in Ichigo's arms and her arms around his neck. She smiled, it had been a while since she had a really good night of sleep.

She shifted in his arms so that she could look over at the clock. It was almost eight. She let a soft sigh escape her lips and carefully turned herself so that she was facing Ichigo again.

She brought one of her hands up to his face and caressed his cheek. She ran her fingers through his hair and mumbled.

"There's something special about you, if you can make me feel all of these different emotions."

She sighed again and nestled into him and let herself drift back into the realm of sleep. Little did she know Ichigo was half asleep and had heard her. He gave a small smile and wrapped his arms around her tighter.

'_There's something special about you too and it's drawing me in.'_

**X**

Toshiro opened his eyes and looked around the room. He knew earlier that Sakura had left the house. To do what, he didn't know. He had been laying awake in his bed for the past fifteen minutes and hadn't bothered to get out of bed yet.

He turned to the clock that was nearby. It was shortly after eight. He ran his hand through his hair as he sat up, bringing his feet to the ground. He stood up and grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt that he had gotten last time he had a mission in Karakura town.

He closed the door behind him, walked down the hall, and flipped the bathroom lights on. He closed the door behind him and started the water for a shower.

**X**

**Sakura**

'_I'm almost home.'_

'_**Good, yawn, go to bed when we get there.'**_

Sakura mentally rolled her eyes.

'_That's what I was planning to do. I think I'm going to go straight upstairs and to bed.'_

With her house in sight, Sakura sighed. She was only a few more minutes from her comfy bed. She could imagine it now, her kiwi comforter and all of those pillows. (**K/N: **Haha I wonder where THAT came from…and btw you have way too many pillows. And…GET YOUR WATERBED BACK!)

After waking herself up from her thoughts she found she was finally at her house. She unlocked the door and went inside, taking off her shinobi sandals and putting them into her bag.

She put the bag into the hall closet and didn't pay much attention to the fabric cleaner that was carelessly shoved back onto the shelf. She also payed no heed to the sound of a shower turning off.

She untied her head band and ruffled her hair a bit. She walked up the stairs and rounded the corner. She let her eyes close as she took a deep breathe and her pace slowed to a sluggish walk.

**X**

Realizing that he had grabbed a dirty shirt Toshiro sighed in annoyance. He walked out of the bathroom leaving the shirt sitting on the counter. He looked down the hallway to see Sakura.

She was leaning against one of the walls half asleep. He raised an eyebrow as she moved slower than a snail towards her bedroom yawning every once in a while.

He walked over to her and she lazily lifted her head.

"What are you doing up Toshiro?"

"I couldn't sleep anymore so I took a shower. Where did you go?"

She yawned, "Training and I think I'll be able to sleep now." Her words drifted off becoming softer with each passing second and she slowly slid down the wall drifting of into the land of slumber.

Toshiro bent down and picked her up with one arm under her knees and the other behind her shoulders. She shifted in his arms so that her head was nestled in between the junction of his neck and shoulders while her arms snaked around his neck.

He walked into her bedroom gently pushing the door out of the way as not to wake anyone else up or that if Sakura shifted she wouldn't hit the door. He walked across the room and moved the covers back.

As he bent down to put her into the bed he noticed that her arms wouldn't untangle. Toshiro tried to gently pry them from his neck but found it was close to impossible. He sighed in slight irritation and tried another approach.

"You can let go Sakura, you are in your bed now."

"……."

He was met with silence. Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to get her to relinquish her hold unless he woke her up he moved her more towards the center and laid down next to her and cover them with the blankets he had previously pushed back.

He raised his head so that he could place his right arm under it. Sakura moved closer to Toshiro and snuggled into his left side and one arm was draped across his chest.

He turned his head slightly so that he could see her face. Her facial expression was relaxed and she had a faint smile on her lips. He looked up to the ceiling and allowed himself to fall back into slumber with a smile ghosting across his lips.

**X**

**Naruto**

Everybody's favorite hyperactive ninja was still asleep in his white shirt and orange boxers with his favorite sleeping cap on his head. He mumbled incoherently and flipped onto his stomach, still dreaming of his ramen kingdom and his faithful followers.

**X**

**Sakura's House**

Rukia woke up again still in Ichigo's arms. She let a smile grace her features and leaned her head back to look at his face. She noticed him starting to stir from his slumber.

When Ichigo woke up, he blinked a few times before he looked down at the female who was laying comfortably in his arms, and a small smirk appeared on his face.

"Morning midget."

Rukia grinned cunningly, two could play at this game. "Morning strawberry."

They laid there in a peace they so rarely had gotten before it was interrupted.

They looked at each other knowingly.

"Renji."

**X**

Renji had woken up in a fairly good mood. His plan had worked perfectly and all had gone according to his plan. He knew that he had just made his friends happy and was going to be able to torment them about it to no end.

He cockily got out of bed and changed into a pair on pants that were draped across the back of a chair and made his way out of the door. He quietly made his way downstairs to see if the stain was gone.

Seeing that is was made his day even better. Looking at some of the pictures on the hall adjacent to him, he was reminded that he should check on his sister.

He made his way up the steps with a bounce in his step, literally. He walked down the hallway and stopped in front of Sakura's door. He quietly opened it and wasn't happy with the picture that he was given.

His little sister was asleep in the arms of the tenth division taichou and his superior on this mission. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her head resting on his shoulder.

Toshiro had an arm wrapped around her waist and the other one still tucked behind his head. From what Renji could see they were both still clothed thankfully.

But he let out an angry cry. His two friends had heard it and walked over to the opening of Sakura's room to see him glaring at the two, who were peacefully sleeping in the bed in front of the red haired man.

Rukia giggled causing Renji to focus his attention on the two who were entertained at his problem. Ichigo and Rukia were eventually able to drag Renji out of the room and down into the kitchen where Renji paced back and forth ranting on ways he could kill the taichou and not be held responsible for it.

The other two just watched in amusement.

**X**

**Naruto**

Naruto had finally woken up after a peaceful night of sleep. He yawned and stretched his limbs before throwing his feet over the side of his bed. He soon regretted that decision as he kicked a frying pan.

He cradled his foot and kept saying that the vegetables were out to get him. Carefully avoiding the pan at all costs with his 'super ninja skills' he got out of his bedroom and reeled back in surprise.

His kitchen was in worse condition than what is was when he had gone to bed. He scratched his head

'Did I try to make ramen in my sleep again?'

He shrugged and preceded over to the kitchen and made his usual morning breakfast of …bet you can't guess…ramen.

**X**

Another chapter completed! I feel so proud of myself for updating regularly lately. I will get another chapter out soon.

How did you guys like the chapter? I decided that it was time to include a little more fluff.

**Kyuu:** Awww…I loved the HitsuSaku fluff. It made me feel…fluffy inside.


	11. Chapter 11

Hey guys! I've got another chapter for you guys here. I'm trying to get this chapter done as quick as possible because I'm working on it on my sister's birthday. It doesn't help considering she and her friends running everyone up and down the walls. Between that and the screaming I've got a migraine and can't think straight.

mumbles

Baka, you are one lucky son of a gun. You don't have to deal with any younger siblings.

**Kyuu: **Yes I do. I have to deal with yours, Zu-chan. Tell the ursanikachi I said hi, gaki.

Sorry it took so long guys, its my fault. I was at college and just got back. Gomen nasai. On with the story!

**X**

**Sakura's Room**

Sakura's face scrunched up in annoyance when the sun hit her face. She buried her head further into the warm body next to her.

_'Wait….who is in my bed?!'_

She thought about it for a few minutes trying to rack her brain for this morning's happenings. Most of them came easily to her, but after she got to her house the rest just wouldn't.

_'Well, there's only one way to find out. And it had better not be Naruto.'_

She cautiously opened her eyes but didn't move her head. Making sure that the rise and fall of the muscular chest in front of her was a steady rhythm, she slowly rose her head. Pushing a few obnoxious locks away from her eyes she nearly face-vaulted.

_'Why is Toshiro asleep in my bed? And with his arm around me for that matter!'_

Sakura's face scrunched up in confusion and looked up to his face as if he could tell her without waking up. His snowy white hair was more messy than usual and his eyelids covered the turquoise colored eyes beneath them. He had moved his right hand from beneath his head to rest on his torso.

She let her eyes trail down and blushed. He was well defined and wasn't too bulky with muscle.

_'**He's exactly your type, too.'**_

Sakura's face grew to a light cherry color.

_'Shut up.'_

Hisuikaitou chuckled.

_'**Sure, sure, whatever you say. Just don't do anything I wouldn't do.'**_

Her face was now rivaling a ruby or garnet. She buried her face in between the bed and Hitsugaya. Thanks to her zanpakuto's soul she was now receiving very perverted images.

_'Hisuikaitou! Stop it!'_

Hisuikaitou stopped showing her the images and rolled around on the ground laughing hysterically.

_'**Fine, laugh, fine.'**_

When Sakura was able to get her blush under control and push the, uh, vivid thoughts from her mind at the current moment, she raised her head. She could immediately feel the color coming back to her cheeks.

Toshiro had woken up shortly after Sakura had tried to burrow herself into the bed and had been waiting for her to resurface. He knew it was only a matter of time. When she finally decided to reappear her cheeks were a light pink. But when she saw that he was awake, her blush had magnified ten-fold. Toshiro raised an eyebrow. Before he could say anything his phone went off.

Sakura was relieved.

_'Yes! No awkward conversation for me!'_

She heard laughter and rolled her eyes stopping in the middle of her mental happy dance.

_'What now? Can't you see I'm busy here.'_

_'**Well, it only means that your conversation was put off for a while, it doesn't mean that it won't happen.'**_

Her face dropped.

_'Why me?'_

Toshiro grabbed his cell phone from the night table that he had put it on earlier that morning and opened it.

_'A group of hollows near the border. Rangiku should be here soon, then join the rest of the group.'_

He looked over to see Sakura in thought. He put his hand on her shoulder and gently shook her.

"There is a group of hollows near the border."

Sakura nodded and jumped out of the bed completely forgetting her conversation with her zanpakuto and skidded over to her training bag and grabbed her soul candy. Taking it out of the bag she popped it into her mouth. Her soul immediately separated from her gigai and she turned to her gigai.

"There's a group of hollows near the border stay here and cover for me if needed. I'm going with nii-san and everyone else."

"Hai! Take care Sakura-sama!"

While Sakura was taking her soul candy from her bag Toshiro had gone into his room and also separated from his gigai. The modified soul nodded and Toshiro went down stairs waiting for everyone in the living room near the door. Sakura nodded and ran down the hall and into the living room where Renji, Ichigo, Rukia, and Toshiro were waiting for her and for Rangiku to show up. Toshiro nodded and the group went outside and waited a few seconds for Rangiku to meet them.

Rangiku came running up on their right and joined the group. Toshiro quickly explained the situation and when everything was cleared up they took off with Toshiro in the lead and Sakura following behind him because she knew the layout of the land. Behind her were Rukia and Rangiku with Renji and Ichigo bringing up the rear.

They raced through the streets and as they came upon more and more people they took to the roof tops. Knowing that they would lose valuable time if they went through the gates they leapt over the wall that surrounded Konoha and into the dense forest. After making sure the last of their party was across the barrier Toshiro took off again with everyone falling back into place.

When they were about two thirds of the way there Hitsugaya stopped the group and let them take a quick break and let them catch their breath before they would confront the hollows. Sakura had perched herself onto a low branch of a nearby tree and was taking a drink from her canteen. As they had been closing the gap between them and the hollows it felt like something was going to happen and Sakura knew it didn't have to deal with the hollows.

_'**Don't think about it for now. We'll deal with it when it decides to show itself to us.'**_

_'I'll try not to.'_

Rangiku was enjoying watching Rukia hit Ichigo and Renji. After a while though she was beginning to get a little bored. That's when she noticed Sakura on a branch just a few meters away. She walked over towards her and jumped onto the same branch as Sakura. Said person turned to the fuku taichou with a small smile on her face.

"Hi Rangiku."

"Sakura! You know we haven't gotten to hang out yet!"

Sakura laughed, "I know we'll have to do something when we get back to the village. We should go out to eat or something."

Rangiku's smile grew. "Do you know anywhere that has some could sake?"

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, and they have really good food too."

Rangiku squealed and picked up Sakura, giving her a suffocating hug. "Oh that's great! We have to go there after we get done with the hollows!"

Sakura had somehow gotten out of the hug during the middle of Rangiku's idea and was now being spun around by the strawberry blonde. Noticing that the captain was on his way back from where ever he had gone everyone made sure that their items wouldn't be left behind and that they were ready to dive straight into getting rid of the hollows.

Toshiro dropped down from higher up in the trees and they began on their short journey. The adrenalin was rising among the group and a few of them, namely Ichigo and Renji, were ready to take down as many hollows as they could. Sakura could feel the excitement starting to flow through her veins. It had been a long time since she had fought a hollow and she was determined to take at least two of them down.

**X**

**Naruto**

After finishing his daily breakfast of instant ramen he grabbed his orange and black jumpsuit and quickly changed into it. He was almost out the door when he finally remembered that he had three guests. He widened his eyes.

_'Does Renji have the same temper as Sakura-chan?'_

Gulping he ran back into the living room and didn't see any sign of the trio. He ran down the hall and ran into the guest bedroom. He looked around.

_'Why does the room look so familiar, and not because it's in my apartment?'_

He stood there with his face scrunched up and scratching the back of his head, his eyes sweeping the room. Then it donned on him, it was his bedroom. Just as he was about to walk out the room he noticed a frying pan next to his bed.

_'What's that doing in here?'_

Shrugging he left his room and walked into the guest bedroom. Still he couldn't find any sign of the two shinigami or the substitute shinigami. He swallowed a lump in his throat. Who should he go to, Tsunade or Sakura?

Making his decision he took off to the hokage tower. Maybe she wouldn't hit him as hard as Sakura would, maybe. He used his chakra to scale the wall and knocked on Tsunade's window. The blonde opened the window and stood in front of Tsunade's desk.

"What is it Naruto?"

"Well, uh, you see…."

Tsunade's eye started to twitch.

"Yes Naruto, go on."

"Well, uh, when I woke up, uh…"

"Just spit it out already!"

"**WELL AFTER I WOKE UP AND HAD MY YUMMY RAMEN AND I WAS ABOUT READY TO LEAVE I REMEMBERED ABOUT SAKURA'S BROTHER, ICHIGO, AND RUKIA STAYING OVER BECAUSE OF THE STORM AND WHEN I LOOKED IN MY APARTMENT THEY WEREN'T THERE! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"**

Tsunade looked at him weirdly.

"Why would I kill you…? They went to deal with some hollows that appeared near the border."

Naruto peeked out from behind the chair that he had been cowering behind.

"Really, Baa-chan?!"

"Yes. AND I AM NOT OLD, BRAT!" (K/N: Haha. Brat. Gaki. That's you, Zu-chan)

Tsunade preceded to chase Naruto around her office using anything sturdy as a weapon.

**X**

**Shinigami**

They were only a few hundred meters away from their destination and the hollows. You could practically feel the adrenalin that was pumping through their veins. The thrill of approaching battle grew by the second. It had been a while since they had gotten to Konoha and had fought a hollow, and now there was a group of them.

As they approached the clearing the outlines of the hollows were becoming more recognizable. One looked like it was an overgrown baboon while another looked like squid. With one last shunpo the shinigami rushed into the group of the hollows and set to work. They made sure to steer clear of their teammates and to avoid throwing an attack in their direction unless necessary.

Using a nearby tree as a spring board, Rukia pushed herself in the direction of a rat-like hollow. Using her zanpakuto as an extension of her arm she was able to make a decent gash on the hollow as it tried to escape. She made a quick swipe at one of its limbs and was able to separate it. But she didn't see another hollow that had made its way behind her.

Renji sent a shot of white lightning towards it successfully rendering it immobile for a few moments as it continued to struggle to stand. Rukia sent a look of thanks in his direction and finished off the rat hollow with another swipe of her zanpakuto down the middle of its mask. She then started on the one that Renji was able to temporarily immobilized for her.

Rangiku had fought with a horse like hollow and had quickly defeated it. She was currently working on defeating a peacock-looking hollow. 'I wonder how Yumichika would react to this…,' she mused. She was careful to avoid the talons of the bird-like creature and continued on trying to eliminate it.

Renji and Ichigo had made fighting the hollows into a competition amongst themselves and were charging at the hollows near them with smug grins on their faces as they swiped at them. They had even made a point to take care of the hollow that was fighting with their opponent just for the kicks of it.

Toshiro had taken out the hollows that had challenged him with relative ease. From the way they had fought he knew that they were just rookies at being a hollow and couldn't have transformed more than a few weeks ago at most. Every now and again he would come across a more experienced one that gave him a little trouble but nothing that he or the others of the group couldn't handle.

Sakura dove to the left and brought her zanpakuto up and swung it downwards at an angle effectively disposing of the hollow she had been fighting for the past few minutes. She used the back of her arm to wipe the few beads of sweat that were gathering on her forehead. Seeing that they had finished off the group of hollows she sheathed her zanpakuto and walked towards everybody else when her body tensed.

_'I knew something was going to happen.'_

_'**Just keep your cool and don't do anything rash.'**_

_'I know.'_

Soon everybody else was able to feel the presence of another person. They didn't have spiritual pressure though. Toshiro looked over to Sakura, she met his gaze and nodded. The person was a shinobi and by the way Sakura's body had tensed up he could tell the shinobi was an enemy. He looked at Renji and Ichigo and saw that they were ready to spring at the possible opponent if the opportunity arrived.

Ichigo, Renji, and Toshiro were standing in front of the group with Toshiro in the middle and slightly more in front of the other two. Sakura was behind him but was in clear view of the entrance to the clearing with Rukia and Rangiku on either side of her. They were all ready to attack or defend themselves if needed.

The three females were ready to unsheathe their zanpakuto too if needed. The wind picked up slightly and the figure slowly walked towards the opening in front of them that lead to the clearing. As they got closer the silhouette of the figure was male and looked to be around Ichigo's age or so.

The figure continued their slow pace towards the shinigami and three other figures could be seen following the first figure but quite a distance behind the first figure. After waiting painstakingly for the few minutes that had passed by in a deathly quiet silence, the figure emerged from the shadows that had shrouded him.

Sakura's eyes slightly widened before narrowing, Renji had been glaring at the entrance to the clearing and his glare hardened even more. His glare wasn't his normal 'battle' glare but instead a 'you're dead if you don't run for your life.' Rukia had also recognized him from one of Sakura's old photos and also glared.

Ichigo and Rangiku could easily sense the hatred rolling off of their comrades and knew this person was someone that was asking for a death wish by coming anywhere near them, and by the way the temperature was quickly dropping they knew that the person was very unlucky that they were going to get to meet the ice wielding taichou. But the two people of their group who the hatred was radiating the most from were Sakura and Toshiro.

The figure stopped in mid step noting the aura of the group. Though he was mostly confused as to why they were wearing hakamas and kimonos. Each of them had a katana that was unique and either held within reachable distance in their obi or on their back.

He could feel that his three companions had stopped when they had started to feel the waves of hatred and killing intent coming from the six people in the clearing. After contemplating for his options for a few more seconds he decided to continue into the clearing. When Sakura was able to fully see him, she glared even harder and spat out.

"What do you want, Uchiha?"

Sasuke smirked, "What? No 'Sasuke-kun come back to Konoha'?"

Her glare intensified, "You're a traitor Uchiha, and personally I don't want to have anything to do with you."

"Oh really? Why were you on those retrieval missions then?"

"You want to know why? Well its because Naruto saw you as a brother and wanted you to come back. After all you've done to him though, I think he's finally starting to see who you really are."

"Oh really, Haruno?"

Renji interrupted.

"Yeah and its not Haruno, its Abarai."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and looked at Sakura. "So you didn't wait for me like you said you would after all."

Rukia chuckled and had a knowing smirk on her face. "No, she didn't get married although I wouldn't be too surprised if it happens shortly after this. You see Haruno wasn't her real surname, Abarai is."

The shinigami watched as his facial expression changed. His group soon came into the clearing. He looked at the shinigami. "And who are all of you?"

Rukia stepped forward, "Kuchiki Rukia, thirteenth division."

"Matsumoto Rangiku, fuku taichou tenth division."

"Kurosaki Ichigo, human shinigami."

Laughter could be heard from a red haired woman who had come into the clearing a few moments before. She fixed her glasses.

"Strawberry huh?"

Ichigo smirked, "Actually it means one guardian." Her amused expression promptly dropped and a Blue haired man chuckled.

"You suck at making fun of people Karin."

"I do not Suigetsu!"

Sasuke cleared his throat while the shinigami just stood their looking amused at the dysfunctional group. After they quit arguing the rest continued.

"Abarai Renji, Sakura's older brother and fuku taichou sixth division."

"Abarai Sakura, not Haruno, shinigami."

"Hitsugaya Toshiro, taichou tenth division."

Sasuke's eyes flashed to his kekkei genkai trying to intimidate them but failed in doing so. "Uchiha Sasuke, leader."

"Karin."

"Suigetsu."

"Juugo."

**X**

Well, there's the chapter for you. If you guys want me to update don't be afraid to nag at me in your reviews and if I still am slow updating feel free to pm me to tell me to get to work.

**THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE YOU KYUU! **mumbles You already remind me on a daily basis. Which reminds me, YOU need to update your story. And wow, I was able to actually make the chapter longer.

**Kyuu: **Kukuku. Ano, I do have to keep reminding you. You'll forget. sigh Gaki.

Maa, so mean. Now I'm not gonna give you your papers to go to Japan with me. So there.

**Anzu:** Then who's going to buy you your first bowl of real ramen.

**Also! If I get enough reviews I'll post the next chapter on my birthday in a few days! It's almost done to so Kyuu will get it soon!**


	12. Chapter 12

Hey everyone I've got another chapter done. Uh, not to much to say for once in my life so on to the story.

**Kyuu:** Geez. I gotta live a little here. Any breathing space? Two chapters so close together. Maa, so mean.

X

Sakura stood there, seemingly bored. Sasuke glared. Since when was she not afraid of him or begging him to come back to Konoha with her so that team seven could be reunited? And what was with Kuchiki's comment?

'_No, she didn't get married although I wouldn't be too surprised if it happens shortly after this. You see Haruno wasn't her real surname, Abarai is.'_

The mood in the clearing went from one extreme to another. The atmosphere before was a mix of tense and anger. Now it was of confusion, hatred, and others that were being covered by the first two. Sakura was fuming, so her former teammate decided to approach her of all the members of the former team seven.

He probably thought that out of anyone she was the weakest and therefore the easiest to kill off. Oh how wrong he was, it would be a frozen day in Hell before she would let him walk all over her and the remaining members of her team.

Renji was glaring at Sasuke and the bickering minions behind him. From what he had heard and understood the guy with the chicken-butt styled hair, Sasuke, had left his sister and the rest of her team to get powerful enough to kill his older brother.

It reminded him of the three previous taichou that had betrayed Seireitei. Only, they had more intentions than just getting revenge on a specific person. They wanted to take over Soul Society and the living world. But to him it was similar enough to want to wipe the guy from the edge of the earth.

Rukia wanted to wipe the disgusting smirk off of the red-headed girl's face. Her name was Karin, if Rukia had paid enough attention to it, but it really didn't matter to her. After all, she wasn't all that important. Rangiku looked at her taichou, his face was impassive as usual but after being his subordinate for so long she could tell that there were traces of anger and something else she couldn't identify in his gaze.

Ichigo and Suigetsu were having what seemed to be a staring contest. They continued on while paying no attention to their surroundings until Karin showed up. At the sound of Karin's shrill voice he lost his concentration and blinked.

"Suigetsu quit being stupid! Because of you Sasuke-kun isn't paying attention to me!"

He turned to his annoying teammate.

"You were the one who said you sensed something, but said it wasn't chakra, it was something else. So it's your own damn fault."

She glared at him and pushed her glasses up. Ichigo chuckled quietly to himself, but Renji had heard.

"What's so funny Ichigo?"

Ichigo motioned over to the two bickering shinobi.

"That red-headed ninja just pushed her glasses up her nose like Ishida."

Renji smirked a little, "Hm, then maybe she gets annoyed as easily."

Ichigo mirrored Renji's look.

"Yeah, and I'll bet that she shows it more too."

Sasuke continued to glare.

"So what exactly did Kuchiki mean when she said you weren't married or taken yet but probably after this."

Rukia jumped into the conversation after hearing her name.

"I didn't say that she wasn't taken yet. Just that she wasn't married."

Rangiku's ears perked up at the prospect of her captain finally having a love life.

"Oh! Do tell Rukia!"

Rukia whispered to Rangiku everything that had happened while Sakura had a very faint blush brushed on her cheeks as she tried to convince them that her personal version could wait until later.

Rukia finished giving a very quick version of what had happened and had promised Rangiku all of the juicy details later.

Rangiku smiled.

"I will hold that to you Rukia, and Renji. I don't think you could take on taichou that easily without getting your self hurt in the process."

Renji looked questioningly towards the buxom blonde, and his oh so intelligent reply was, "Huh?"

Sakura almost did a face plant. Her brother hadn't been paying attention to them even though they were talking about what Ichigo and Rukia had to keep him from trying earlier that morning.

Toshiro had lifted an elegant eyebrow up in amusement. It wasn't that hard to bring out Renji's over-protective brother side out. Although it wasn't that surprising, he treated Rukia like a sister and a best friend.

Sasuke was getting angrier by the second, they continued to ignore him and the one teammate he didn't think would change had changed the most. Though, most had just been hidden from him and the others until recently.

'_Well then, I'll just have to change that.'_

He cleared his throat slightly and his subordinates looked at him, waiting for the command to start.

"Sakura, come with me." He smirked in her direction for extra dazzle.

'_Any second she'll come running to me yelling 'Sasuke-kun' and who ever is trying to stake claims on her will lose everything they've worked for. She may be annoying but she could be useful in the future.'_

She looked at him disgustedly.

"OH **HELL** NO!"

His smirk promptly fell off his face.

"You're a pompous jerk! Why would I want anything to do with you?!"

Ouch, that was a blow to his massive ego.

She had pushed past her brother and was about ready to go and murder her ex-teammate. The same one that she had worked hard to find and try to bring back to Konoha in the past.

Toshiro grabbed her by the waist and held on to her as she tried to pull out of his arms and kill the shinobi that was in front of him. She continued to try to push through his grasp but just kept walking, well more like stomping, in place.

Eventually, she gave up and crossed her arms in front of her chest letting out a sigh of frustration. He kept his hold on her knowing that she would dart off the moment he started to loosen his hold.

She gave in completely after a few seconds of him not dropping his hands. She sighed in defeat and let him pull her back so that she was now leaning against his chest letting herself somewhat relax even with all of the tension and hostility.

Sasuke glared harder and his sharingan swirled violently. So the captain of the group had gained her affections. His glare intensified, he had made a deal with someone a few weeks ago and Sakura was needed for the deal to be completed on his part.

It was hard to tell what the person he had made the deal with completely looked like. The area they had met in was a cave not to far from were the sound village was.

Though he hated to even admit to himself in the privacy of his own mind the guy practically screamed power and destruction. But if he kept his part of the deal then he would have to deal with one less ex-teammate, even if it seemed she didn't want to see him ever again anyways.

One thing he couldn't understand was the fact that it didn't feel right to him to see Sakura let herself be in another man's arms other than some one from team seven. It disturbed him, and he almost felt a little jealous. After all she had told him she loved him before he knocked her out and left her on that stone bench.

Toshiro let an unnoticeable smirk adorn his face. Sasuke thought that he could take Sakura away from them so easily. Apparently he wasn't paying attention when he was told that she wasn't originally from Konoha.

Renji was a little confused. What was Rukia telling Rangiku about before he had heard her say his name? He shrugged. Oh well, he could find out after this little 'encounter' with his little sister's former teammate.

He had to admit, even though he wasn't happy when he found out that his sister and one of his superiors could now be in some sort of a romantic relationship, at least he knew that she would be safer than with a seated member.

'_And just because I'm her brother she's now only allowed to have a serious romantic relationship with someone fuku taichou or higher.'_

Crossing his arms over his chest and nodding approvingly at his decision he realized something.

'_Wait! Than what happens if there isn't anything between her and Hitsugaya taichou and she were to go out with someone like Izuru or Shuuhei?'_

He paled.

'_I hadn't thought about that.'_

Rukia and Rangiku watched as the expressions on Renji's face continued to change from one emotion to the complete opposite of the previous. They tried their best to cover the fit of laughter that was trying to make its presence known.

Renji looked over to his friends. Rukia and Rangiku were trying not to laugh at kami knows what. Ichigo was having another staring contest with the ninja with the huge sword on his back again. And his sister and Hitsugaya-taichou were still in the same position still looking at the others across the clearing.

'_Wait, what are Rukia and Rangiku trying not to laugh at?'_

He turned around more to face the two.

"What are you guys laughing about now?"

They couldn't contain it anymore and dropped to the ground rolling around and laughing. Rukia stopped laughing long enough to tell him.

"Just a few moments ago you looked like you had PMS."

….And then preceded to continue where she had stopped.

Renji's face started to slowly seep red and if you looked closely you could see the newly forming clouds of smoke. He took a couple deep breaths and turned back around waiting for the fight to begin so he could unleash his anger.

Sakura tilted her head back slightly and looked up to Toshiro's face. The shadows of the trees covered the clearing enough so that the sun wasn't in her eyes and she could freely look at him for a short time. His face was angular but not too much and his bangs fell just right to fit his style.

She let a small smile slip onto her face before dismissing it and turning her attention back to Sasuke. He seemed to be in a semi trance and looked like he was contemplating his choices. Sakura gently elbowed Toshiro and nodded her head in the direction of Sasuke's team. He nodded, knowing that they would most likely attack soon.

Signaling the rest of the shinigami they discreetly prepared themselves. Not a moment too late either. With a nod of his head, Sasuke had silently told his companions that they would attack at that time.

Toshiro within milliseconds had released Sakura as both unsheathed their zanpakuto and melted into a defensive stance. Sasuke had drawn his katana from his purple bow and had decided to attack Toshiro first to gauge his strength.

Toshiro blocked the blow with Hyorinmaru and put a little more force after the initial block forcing Sasuke back a couple meters.

'_Tch, so this is all a captain can do.'_

He ran forward towards Toshiro, pushing chakra into his legs, and picked up his speed considerably. But instead of attacking Hitsugaya he turned his torso and swung his katana in Sakura's direction but vanished in a mere second.

Sakura had used shunpo and had moved herself to the left of Toshiro, Hisuikaitou still poised in her hands and back into her original stance. Sasuke glared. So, she had worked on her speed.

X

Ichigo smirked when the blue-haired nin that he had been having staring contests, to see who would look away or blink first, came charging at him. He grabbed Zangetsu's hilt and lifted from his back swinging it in front of him.

Blades clashed as the two bold sword-wielders took it upon themselves to see which one was better and would ultimately be the overall winner of the new found Shinobi vs. Shinigami Olympics.

X

Rukia smirked as the red-haired girl kept talking like that was going to make them cower in fear and runaway in the blink of an eye. Rangiku also shared a similar look, if anything they were about ready to burst out laughing at the kunoichi's speech.

"-and then Sasuke-kun will be mine and all of you will either be left for the dead or cowering in fear and begging for Sasuke-kun's mercy and I'll tell him you aren't worth it."

They couldn't contain it anymore and busted out laughing. Karin looked appalled.

"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME! I AM SERIOUS! FINE I'LL JUST TAKE CARE OF YOU BY MYSELF AND SASUKE-KUN WON'T HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF YOU OR LISTEN TO YOUR PATHETIC VOICES ASKING FOR MERCY!"

Karin lost it and attacked. Rangiku used shunpo and was now behind her. Karin faulted and lost her balance throwing her to the right and taking a face plant in the dirt.

X

Renji stood in front of Juugo, Zabimaru still in his sealed form and now in front of him ready to block or attack. Juugo stood there trying to contain himself for as long as possible.

It didn't last long though and the two ran towards one another exchanging blows.

X

Everyone kept fighting for their respective reasons. By the end of it all Karin's glasses were shattered and couldn't walk without running into something or someone's blade. Hint, hint. Everyone also had some form of an injury. The worse ones belonging to Sasuke's group.

Begrudgingly, Sasuke gave orders for them to retreat, but looked back to the shinigami.

"Be prepared, next time we won't hold back."

They then left the clearing and when Sakura could no longer feel their chakra signatures she plopped down onto the ground laying on her stomach and her face buried in her folded arms.

Renji and Ichigo also fell to the ground and sat down in comfortable positions and were just lounging for the time being. Rukia had decided to walk around the perimeter of the small clearing and Rangiku went to go bug her captain, huh, I mean talk to her captain.

"So taichou, are you and Sakura-chan going out yet?"

Toshiro was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed. Rangiku had turned around and was looking at Renji and Ichigo while Sakura was off to the left and currently out of the line of her vision.

"No."

A Cheshire grin started to appear.

"Oh, so soon then."

"……"

"Oh, then you just don't want Renji to hear."

"……"

"Taichou?"

Rangiku turned around to look at her captain but found he was no longer there. Looking around she found that everyone was getting up and Toshiro was walking towards her talking with Sakura. Well Sakura was doing most of the talking.

Everyone was now back to the tree where Rangiku had been interrogating her taichou. Making sure everyone was there and were ready to go they stood there waiting for Toshiro and Sakura to reach them.

"Let's go."

With that they were on their way back towards the village.

X

They were almost back at the village when the sun was almost completely gone from the horizon and the moon was still climbing into the twilight sky. When they had reached the village it was completely black with the exception of the few stars in the sky.

Bidding goodnight, the group split into their separate directions to rest and recuperate for the attacks that were sure to come. From both hollows and shin obi alike.

X

Yeah! As promised I updated on my birthday! I'd like to thank these reviewers for the support to update again so quickly!

xladykittyx - Thank you!

NorthernLights25 - Thank you! I really appreciate it!

PrincessKitsune17 - Here's some more for ya!

Yamiko-Uchiha - Thank you! It makes me happy that I was able to inspire you in a way and I'm curious as to how I did.

VampireprincessSakura - Thank you! I'm glad that you love it!

Jenny88 - It's great to hear that it's one you'd re-read again!

animefaves- It's great to hear that you can't wait for the next chapter!

Sakura Angel 4eva - I know but I had to put her in so that I could have a little more entertainment.

Inuyashamistress25 - Thank you! I'll keep continuing to try and update more often.

toboe108 - Thank you!

crazyilinsanelady - laughs Thank you! Your review helped me push through when I had gotten stuck on a part of this chapter!

X

Thank you everybody please click the little purple go button and leave me a review! Leave any comments, inspiration, or even just to tell me to get my rear in gear and update!

**Kyuu:** Do you see that people? No respect. She didn't give ME any little thing to thank me. But you guys still love me…right? Right? Ramen for the unloved? _Please…?_


	13. Chapter 13

Hey guys I'm back! I know that it's taking me forever to update but there were many causes behind that. I had also lost my USB stick that I save all of my chapters on. Which had half of the next chapter on it so I had to completely retype everything.

I'm going to re-edit the previous chapters that have grammatical and other errors or just things that I didn't like how I wrote.

Also, I'm trying to finish His Return soon and after that I've decided to make Rushing Tides into a story. Thanks for your support and I'm happy that I now have the time to get back to my stories.

~Anzu

Kyuu: Excuses, excuses. Half of it is just being lazy, Zu-chan. (not uh! U haven't updated your stories in a while! Besides guard took up a lot of free time.) She's in denial! And there aren't any big grammatical errors in those other chapters thank you very much. That's why they call me a beta! Yay! Or a zeta, if you like gaia online. Anybody on here have one of those?

Zu-chan? You are gonna get sued. No disclaimer. I know! I'll do it for you!

Disclaimer: Anzu Maki does not own Naruto, Bleach, or any of the characters associated with either. She does, however, own the plot. So back off story stealers! Rawr.

**X**

It was nearing dawn and the sunlight slowly began to creep from the glass of the windows. A figure turned away from the window and began to wake up. Dark violet eyes were soon revealed as the owner adjusted their vision. She slowly sat up and stretched her arms towards the ceiling.

Sliding her legs from the warm blankets, Rukia set them on the floor slowly letting her body adjust to the cold temperature of the room and floor. Pushing up off the bed she began to walk over to where the closet was. Opening the door she pushed a few of the clothes aside and tried to decide on what outfit to wear.

After a while she decided to just go ahead and wear her normal dress. After folding her yellow and orange plaid pajamas, she set them back into the small closet and glanced at the clock. It was only five o' clock.

'Why did I wake up _this_ early?'

Letting out a small sigh she walked out of her temporary room and closed the door softly behind her. As she walked down the hall, only a soft tap could be heard. After a few moments of walking through the house Rukia had found herself to be the only one up.

'Guess I'll just have to occupy myself until someone else wakes up.'

Browsing the bookshelf in the living room she came across a book that peaked her interest. '_The History of Konoha and the Shinobi Nations,_ huh? Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to learn more than the bare minimum I know right now.'

Plopping into the chair, she settled into a comfortable position and dove into her reading.

**X**

Sakura woke up shortly after Rukia had started reading the book she'd pulled from one of the many shelves of the book case. Sakura had chosen to lay in bed for a while just to relax and go over the previous day's events. Why in the world did Sasuke think she'd go with him? Shaking her head, she let the thoughts recede to the back of her mind and instead thought about Rukia's statements to the Uchiha avenger.

'"_I didn't say that she wasn't taken yet. Just that she wasn't married." _By now just about every single shinigami on this mission knows and that means Naruto and everyone else will know soon, too. Great, just great. Now I have to put up with even _more_ whining.'

With a huff, she threw her feet over the plush bed and walked into her bathroom. She brushed through her knotted hair and brushed her teeth. Looking at the clock, she found it was still fairly early in the morning and that her brother was still asleep. So she wouldn't have to worry about him saying anything about her walking around the house in a white sports bra and a pair of long flannel maroon duck bottoms.

Making sure to shut her door behind her, she started to walk through the hallway and down the stairs. She gave a small, sleepy smile to Rukia who did the same when she saw her walk into the room. Sakura continued to walk into the kitchen and patiently waited for her coffee to be done. Taking a mug from a nearby cupboard, she filled it with the dark liquid and enjoyed the warm feeling it gave her as it slid down her throat.

She took out another cup, filled it, and walked out to Rukia. Rukia set her book down and thanked Sakura as she took a sip of it. Out of nowhere, she started to quietly laugh. Sakura gave her a questioning look, asking her to explain.

"This reminds me of the first time Renji had coffee."

"What happened?"

"Well, he kept asking to me put more sugar in and by the time he had finished his coffee he couldn't stay still."

"What happened then? I know my brother would do something stupid after that."

"Well…"

For a few moments Rukia told her the rest of the story. When she had ended Sakura just shook her head with a smile plastered on her face.

"That idiot, just leave it to him to do something like that."

Soon, Sakura left Rukia so she could return back to her book and she headed upstairs to her room. Before she could even reach out for the door knob, a shadowy figure leapt at her. She nimbly pivoted on her right foot and lifted her left leg, bending it as she did so. Her knee made contact with the figure and sent them skidding back. She melted into a fighting stance and secretly built up chakra in her right fist, ever so slightly.

She watched as the figure regained their balance and started at her again. Sakura counted down in her head and when she reached zero she quickly slid back a few inches pulling her arm behind her and then pushed it in front of her releasing the built of energy and affectively hitting the intended target. But before the two could continue their fight, the door across from Sakura's room opened and the figure disappeared after being hit by Toshiro's zanpakuto.

'Shadow clone.'

Hitsugaya replaced Hyorinmaru back into its sheath and walked further into the hallway so that he was closer to Sakura. At the same time, she had also walked toward him -- closing the gap in between them. He brought his arms around her and let her lean against him.

"What happened?"

Sakura looked up but still had her head leaning against his torso. "I was getting ready to go into my room when I noticed the outline of a shadowy figure and was attacked."

He nodded his head and rested it on top of hers. Sakura let herself completely relax and mold to his body. She hadn't felt this way in so long, it felt foreign but she welcomed it.

Toshiro looked down at the girl in his arms. Who would have known that he would fall in love with Abarai's sister? (certainly not him.) It felt so right to him though, like he had found a part of him that had been missing.

Out of the blue, Toshiro picked up Sakura in his arms. She looked up at him with her face scrunched up in confusion. He gave her a small smirk and took her into his room, making sure that the door was closed and they wouldn't be interrupted.

**X**

Cliffhanger! I know I finally update even if it is an intermission chapter and leave you guys hanging. I am such an evil author! I will tell you this though, the Soul Society chapters will be coming up soon and Sasuke won't come back for a few chapters either. Also thanks for all the support, my schedule is pretty tight now that I'm in so many school activities.

Thank you all again!

Kyuu: Yes, and winter guard starts today! Hooray! Bye everybody, R&R!


	14. Chapter 14

Hey guys I've got the next chapter for you. It took a little more longer than I hoped because I would come up with one scene but then I liked another more so here it is!

Kyuu: Mmmhmm. Excuses, excuses. Ah well, here you go at last everybody!

Don't listen to her, she procrastinates more than I do.

Also! I don't own Naruto or Bleach but on the other hand I own the plot and any original characters I decide to throw in it!

X

After closing the door, Toushiro set her down to her feet and before she could even blink he was laying on the bed with his arms behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. An idea wormed into her head and she pounced toward the bed. Before she could claim the upper hand though she was pinned beneath him.

Sakura pouted while Toushiro gave her an 'I knew what you were going to do' look. She grinned and raised her head up so that their lips met and took him by surprise. She took advantage of his surprise and rolled out from under him.

Falling onto his back, Toushiro took Sakura into his arms. She let him pull her closer and laid her head down onto his shoulder and reached her hand up and started to mess with his hair. He shook his head and she lightly laughed as a few of the strands tickled her face. He stared at her and she just smiled in return.

She continued to lay there her head resting on his shoulder. 'I better tell her now.'

"Sakura."

"Hm."

"I just received word from Yamamoto-taichou, he said that the hollow levels here are under control and said that we're to return in two days."

Sakura looked at him with determination in her eyes. "I'm going back home with you guys."

A smile crept onto his face. "Good, because I wasn't going to let you stay here. I didn't want to drag you kicking and screaming all the way back to Soul Society."

She smiled and replied cheekily, "You know me all to well."

He slightly rolled his eyes.

X

Naruto's House

For the first time in a while Ichigo had finally been able to get a night of decent sleep without waking up to Naruto's snoring. He had woke up about an hour ago and the blonde ninja was still asleep.

Walking into the kitchen, he opened the fridge and the cabinets trying to find something besides ramen and spoiled milk. Opening the fridge, he was lucky enough to find some fruit in it along with a note.

_Hey Ichigo, I thought you could use something besides ramen to eat._

_-Shizune_

'That's the hokage's assistant isn't it?'

Shrugging, he picked up an apple and washed it off before biting into its skin. 'At least _someone_ knows what I've been going through the past couple of weeks.' He threw the core away before taking a clean pair of clothes into the bathroom and beginning his morning ritual.

He came out of the bathroom a short time later and was ready for the day. Naruto's bedroom door swung open and he stumbled out of the room and into the bathroom. The shower was soon turned on and a content sigh escaped his lips before going on with his routine.

X

Sakura's House

Rukia rolled onto her stomach mumbling while trying to shove her pillow into her head.

"Stupid, lazy, good-for-nothing… I'm better than you, you red-headed, tribal-tattooed moocher. Why of all mornings does he pick today to snore? I was having a really good dream."

She rolled back onto her back and yelled into her pillow with frustration. She slowly pulled the pillow down her face, revealing her angry violet eyes, before jumping off her bed and shoving her feet violently into her chappy slippers and ripping her door open.

She walked over to Renji's room and kicked the door open. He gave a loud snore/snort combo before rolling onto his side and continuing to snore. Rukia's eye twitched before she smirked deviously and rubbed her hands together. Tip-toeing over to the side of his bed where she was still closest to the door, she pushed the covers away from a section of the mattress and grabbed on to it.

She tested picking it up and winced when it let out a "SQUEAK!". Renji merely rolled on to his stomach and continued to snore. Grinning, she quickly jerked her arms backwards and flipped him off the bed. She was out of the room before he even hit the ground.

Renji jumped up onto his feet, "Where's the hollow?! I'll show him to mess with the sixth division's fuku-taichou!" He looked from left to right, and back again until an idea donned on him.

"Wait a minute, why was I on the floor?"

Just then, the mattress that had been sitting on its side began to wobble. Renji was too busy trying to figure out how he had ended up on the floor to notice. The mattress started to squeak whenever it came close to falling. Then he heard a faint laugh, he turned around to face the doorway and the mattress. There he saw a head of dark hair a few feet from the mattress.

"It was you Rukia!" She just smirked. "What's that look for?" A gleam shone through her eyes as she quickly reached out for the mattress and gave it a quick, rough shove and darted out of the door and downstairs yelling, "In your face baboon boy!"

Renji sat up, pushed the mattress off of him and ran over it and out of the door skidding as he turned the corner. "Get back here you emo ice princess!"

Rukia ran and jumped onto him, she wrapped her legs around his torso and began to hit him over the head with a dictionary yelling, "I'm not emo! Maybe if I hit you enough with this dictionary you'll actually come up with better comebacks monkey prince!"

Sakura had heard the commotion from upstairs and quietly glided over to the top of the steps. Toushiro soon followed, wanting to know what was going on, too. Sakura stood towards the middle of the steps while Toushiro settled for leaning against the wall. "What are you two doing?"

Renji and Rukia froze, he turned around and Rukia kept the book where it was when they had heard Sakura, conveniently positioned above his head. Renji gave a guilty grin, "Well, you see, we were fighting over what was a better book, and it ended up like this."

She raised an eyebrow, " I doubt that, why would you want to read the dictionary?"

He hung his head down in defeat. "Well, what really happened was . . ."

Rukia cut him off. "The baka here was snoring so loud that he woke me up and I couldn't sleep so I went and flipped him off his bed. When he finally realized I was the one who flipped him off the bed, I shoved the mattress onto him and came downstairs and he came down calling me an 'emo princess'! So, I grabbed the dictionary and started to hit him with it until you guys came."

"Oh. Well, I'm going to make breakfast really quickly then before I get ready."

Rukia nodded and picked up from where she left off, whacking Renji senseless, while Sakura walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Toushiro walked downstairs and watched for a few more seconds before clearing his throat.

"Everything is under control here again so we'll be leaving tomorrow and heading back to Soul Society and receiving more orders. We most likely will be heading back to Karakura Town and patrolling there again."

The two nodded, but before Rukia got off Renji she whacked him one more time just for the heck of it. He rubbed his head glaring at her. She set the book down on the shelf before walking into the kitchen. She opened one of the cupboards and began to set the table. Sakura smiled and nodded to her in thanks. Renji walked in and sat down at the table waiting for breakfast. Toshiro walked into the room and sat down across from Renji.

Rukia and Sakura put the food on the table and sat down. Breakfast went by without any tragedies or causalities (**K/N: **That we know of…). After washing the dishes, Sakura walked into the living room where everyone else had situated after breakfast. Sakura sat down next to Toushiro on the couch.

"So, has anyone told Ichigo and Rangiku yet?"

Rukia tilted her head, "Uh, actually no. But he's supposed to come over soon and Rangiku was on her way when I called her."

Sakura nodded her head, "Okay, then I'm going to start packing my things while we wait." Rukia stood up, "I'll help you." The two females climbed the stairs and started to pack up the things that Sakura wanted to take with her. Renji sighed, "Well, I hope Soul Society is ready for another Abarai."

Toushiro shook his head, "Who knows, but Yachiru will most likely be at your divisions office when she finds out that Sakura has pink hair too." Renji dropped his head, "Well, Taichou will get a break for a while."

Toushiro closed his eyes, "Not for long, Yachiru will eventually go back to annoying him."

X

Naruto's house

Naruto had finally gotten out of the shower, he pulled on his normal orange and black attire and walked out into the kitchen glancing at the clock. He jumped in surprise.

"I WAS IN THE SHOWER FOR OVER AN HOUR!"

Ichigo was sitting on the couch adjusting his zanpakuto's position. He looked up to Naruto with a frown. "Tch, you're louder than Keigo."

Naruto turned to him. "Who's he? I bet he's not as awesome as me!"

Ichigo stood up and made his way over to the door, opening it before turning around. "He's an annoying loud mouth." He exited through the door and started to make his way to Sakura's house via shunpo. In the distance Naruto could be heard.

"I'M NOT AN ANNOYING LOUD MOUTH THOUGH!"

Ichigo ignored him and continued on his way leaping off the tops of the buildings' roofs occasionally propelling himself in the direction of his friends. He stopped as he reached the street of his destination and leaped down, landing in a slight crouch, before standing up and walking the rest of the way. He walked up to the door and knocked a couple times.

"Oi, I'm here."

Renji opened the door and Ichigo walked in closing it behind him and taking off his shoes. Rangiku was already there and had gone upstairs to help Rukia and Sakura pack up. With the three packing, they decided which possessions Sakura should take. They agreed that she should take some of her ninja training clothes, a few pictures, her books and a few other things. Everything else would be sold or given away, as she would no longer need them.

Standing up from her seated position on the floor, Sakura looked at everything she was taking. It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't a few things either. Luckily though, everything would fit in one storage scroll. She walked into her room and took the scroll out of her closet and sealed a box of scrolls in it before walking back into the room and sealing the rest of her things into it. Rukia and Rangiku also stood up, "We're done, so let's go back downstairs."

They nodded and the trio made their way downstairs. They came into the living room and sat down where ever they could find a seat. They discussed their plans for returning back to Soul Society and possibly to Kara Kura town with Ichigo. Rukia most likely would, and so would Renji. Their hadn't been any arrancar attacks lately but that meant that Aizen was up to something.

Saying their farewells for the night, Rangiku and Ichigo left to go back to their temporary residences and pack up their belongings before going to bed. Renji had already fallen asleep on the couch and Rukia was upstairs, most likely getting into bed and falling asleep. Toushiro was making his way up the stairs and Sakura followed, heading towards her room to get some rest as well. As Sakura was about to go into her room she turned to Toushiro who was leaning against his door.

"Good night, Toushiro-kun."

"Good night, Sakura."

He gave her a quick kiss before slipping into his bedroom and going to bed. Sakura followed his example and also went into her room to get ready for the day ahead of them. She slipped her clothes off and put on a camisole and a pair of flannel boxer shorts and, slipping into her silky warm sheets, let herself drift into the realm of sleep.

X

Ok, so this chapter was a tad bit longer than the last one, but only because I didn't want this one to be super long with all the goodbyes and welcoming of leaving Konoha for Soul Society. Christmas break starts in a little over a week and we finally got snow! But it melted -_-*, I also will be updating _His Return _and _Rushing Tides_!(Hopefully)

Kyuu: And I personally think you should have a beta for ALL of your stories. But that's just me. Haha. Make me Christmas cookies guys, and I'll love you forever!


	15. Author's Note and Choices

Hey guys I'm sorry I have not updated but a lot has happened since I last updated. Currently I'm in the middle of color guard season and Sundays are my one free day if you can even call it that anymore. After thinking about it for a while I feel like the story was rushed and strayed from the plot line I had originally started with. I also have some new ideas I'd love to incorporate.

I did, however, have the next chapter for the story written and had sent it to Kyuu but I never got it back or heard anything about it. But, she is just as busy as me and we don't really see much of each other outside of school or guard at the moment with this chaotic Senior year.

Getting back on track though, I would love to hear what you guys think. At this point I'm leaning at just starting from scratch and making a completely new story BUT I would leave this story up and most likely post the rushed and possibly unedited next chapter up and probably end it in that chapter. I just feel like my writing style and ability has changed and I could really see this story going in a different direction.

I'd LOVE to hear feedback guys I enjoyed writing this story but I feel I could write it better for all of you to enjoy more.

- Anzu


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